RIP Johan Cruyff: A True Soccer Icon
By Ty Duffy
Dutch soccer legend Johan Cruyff died from lung cancer at 68. He had been a fervent smoker, until a 1991 heart bypass.
Hagiography is customary in an obituary. But, in Cruyff’s case it is warranted. It’s near impossible to overstate his impact on the sport.
Cruyff was an iconic player. He won three Ballon d’Or trophies and the Golden Ball at the 1974 World Cup. He won 10 league titles as a player and three-straight European Cups with Ajax. He features in our best all-time XI. Few would quibble with him being named the best European player ever.
His 1974 Netherlands team that lost in the final was, perhaps, the greatest not to win the World Cup. His self-imposed absence in 1978, when the Dutch lost in the final to Argentina, remains one of soccer’s great what ifs. The Oranje had not qualified for a major post-war tournament before Cruyff arrived.
Cruyff was soccer’s first true superstar, at least in Europe. Long-haired, weedy, and well-spoken, he broke the hulking athlete mold. He was, unlike most devoting their lives to sport, genuinely cool. He was also a consummate commercial pitchman, notably getting the Dutch FA to remove the third stripe from his jersey. He was a Puma man, not Adidas.
He was also iconic as a coach. Cruyff’s most famous spell was at Barcelona. He won four-straight league titles from 1991-94, won a European Cup, and reached another European final. It was Barcelona’s most successful stretch until Messi.
Cruyff left an aesthetic legacy. He had the Cruyff turn. That beautiful, smooth passing game associated with the Netherlands and Barcelona? Cruyff. But, he also left a practical one.
His “total football” partnership with coach Rinus Michels was the genesis of the modern, fluid, tactical sport soccer has become. Cruyff redefined what a center forward was. Cruyff wasn’t just a smart player. He made the game smarter. Even witnessing his brain work its way through rush hour traffic could dazzle.
It’s hard to encapsulate the totality of Cruyff’s impact on European soccer, without resorting to empty, Trumpian adjectives. Let’s just say he left soccer far more than it gave him.