Johan Cruyff is often recognized as the greatest football player of all time. He was a coach as well as a professional football player. He won the Ballon d’Or three times during his playing career.
He was also a proponent of the Total Football theory pioneered by Rinus Michels.
Johan was also named European Player of the Century in 1999. He also won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player in the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
After finishing third in the UEFA Euro 1976, he refused to join the 1978 World Cup squad due to Argentine dictator Jorge Videla. Aside from that, he established the tradition of wearing shirt numbers other than the standard starting line-up numbers of 1-11. He passed away on March 24, 2016.
To be successful in life, you need to follow Johan Cruyff’s statements.
- “You have got to shoot, otherwise you can’t score.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.”-Johan Cruyff
- “I learned my English from Keith Spurgeon. He had some small children, and I was young, too, and so we spoke the language together, and it was fantastic.”- Johan Cruyff
- “The most important part are the fans, that people going home are happy. It’s their time off, and you should give them something to enjoy.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Every disadvantage has its advantage.”- Johan Cruyff
- “FOOTBALL IS A GAME OF MISTAKES. WHOEVER MAKES THE FEWEST MISTAKES WINS.”- JOHAN CRUYFF
- “Coincidence is logical.”- Johan Cruyff
- “I’m not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Sometimes something’s got to happen before something is going to happen.”- Johan Cruyff
- “ITALIANS CAN NOT BEAT US, BUT WE CAN CERTAINLY LOSE AGAINST THEM.”- JOHAN CRUYFF
- “Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.”- Johan Cruyff
- “I don’t want to be a thief of my own wallet.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.”- Johan Cruyff
- “WITHOUT THE BALL, YOU CAN’T WIN.”- JOHAN CRUYFF
- “To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent.”- Johan Cruyff
- “I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.”- Johan Cruyff
- “My foundation now has some 120 football pitches laid out for children, a lot of them immigrants. We live in a multicultural society.”- Johan Cruyff
- “The disabled people that do sport, they don’t think about what they don’t have but try to get better with what they do have. That is the same for me.”- Johan Cruyff
- “One trophy is good, but two are better. That way, when a hero wears his medals on his chest, at least his steps are level as he walks by.”- Johan Cruyff
- “FOOTBALLERS FROM THE STREET ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN TRAINED COACHES.”- JOHAN CRUYFF
- “Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Football is now all about money. There are problems with the values within the game. This is sad because football is the most beautiful game. We can play it in the street. We can play it everywhere.”- Johan Cruyff
- “If you take golf, you have a teacher for the drive, a teacher for the approach play, and a teacher for the putt. That’s three specialist coaches for one player. In football, one coach looks after 25 players.”- Johan Cruyff
- “When I don’t have control of the ball, what do I do? I press to get it back. It’s a way of defending. But more important is that I like to have the ball. That’s why I believe in individual coaching sessions to prepare players properly.”- Johan Cruyff
- “It’s like everything in football – and life. You need to look, you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space, you need to help others. It’s very simple in the end.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Van Gaal has a good vision of football, but it is not mine. He wants to gel winning teams and has a militaristic way of working with his tactics. I want individuals to think for themselves.”- Johan Cruyff
- “Everybody could use the money, but you don’t play for it – you play with your heart – and that’s a big difference you see in Barcelona. Everybody wants to play there; everybody wants to enjoy themselves. It’s maybe a small percentage, but maybe it’s the difference.”- Johan Cruyff
- “How can you create a team and bring all these egos together? The main goal for Manchester United is for them to play well – and not have a player saying, ‘I play well; I scored two goals.’ Because if I score two goals, but three goals go into our net, then we lose. “-Johan Cruyff
- “Ajax was spending too much money; they were buying players that were too expensive. If you get 100 percent, you can’t spend 120 percent. It’s quite easy.”- Johan Cruyff
