World Cup Stars: Johan Cruyff

Continuing our series of the worlda€s best footballers, languagecaster.com takes a look at a player who would be in most peoplea€s top five best players ever - Hendrik Johannes Cruijff. Check out previous posts on great footballers here. You can listen to the report by clicking on the link above and you can read the transcript below with key vocabulary explained at the bottom of the post. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments then please email us at: [email protected].

Recently, a debate has started as to whether or not Messi is the best player ever, better than Pele or Maradona, the traditional choices of most people for that accolade. It's probably too early to answer yes or no, but one thing is certain, he is a kindred spirit of Johan Cruyff, perhaps the best proponent of attacking football, and close ball control, ever (watch a compilation of his dribbling skills here). he gives a name to a famous football move, 'The Cruyff Turn', and is forever linked with the term, 'Total Football'.



Cruyff's career can be divided into three broad periods: playing for Ajax, for Barcelona, and then his time as a coach.

Ajax

First at Ajax. Cruyff joined the Amsterdam team as a youth player of ten-years old. The Ajax team of the late sixties and early seventies introduced the style of play known as Total Football, where players' positions were fluid and interchangeable, and the focus was on quick passing, movement and attack. Cruyff was perfect for this style of football, as he could turn on a sixpence, read the game beautifully and seemed to have the ball glued to his feet. With Ajax, Cruyff, wearing the number 14 - it was rare at the time for any first team player to not wear a number from 1~11 at that time - won just about everything there was to win - but the three European Cups in succession in 71,72, and 73 stand out, as well as the treble of 72 (League, domestic cup, and European Cup).



Such a player inevitably drew the interest of other big clubs around Europe and at the end of 1973, he moved to Barcelona where he spent five seasons. In his first year at the Spanish giants he was also part of the Dutch team which dazzled the World in the World Cup of 1974, losing to Germany in the final, but winning over most neutrals with their flair and invention, typified by their star player, Cruyff and his famous turn. At Barca, the Dutch maestro, helped the Catalan side win their first championship since 1960, won footballer of the year twice, adding to the title he won at Ajax in 1971, and was part of the side that destroyed Real Madrid 5-0 at the Bernabeu. The Barcelona fans loved him and he returned the compliment by giving his son a Catalan name, Jordi.



After hanging up his boots in 1985, after stints in the US, Levante in Spain and back in Holland with Ajax and their rivals Feyenoord, Cruyff turned to coaching and became manager of his boyhood club, Ajax in 1985. As a manager, Cruyff continued where he'd left of as a player - winning. He won