Johan Cruyff died

March 25, 2016 • 8:30 am

The great soccer player Johan Cruyff from the Netherlands died yesterday at age 68; the cause was lung cancer, as he had been a heavy smoker. One of the greats of all times, including winning the Ballon d’Or three times.

I am off on an all-day sightseeing trip, so I won’t go over his many soccer innovations and records here. I’ll just add that he was an avowed atheist, and famous for saying this when he played for Barcelona:

“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.”

Indeed! Here’s a video documentary of Cruyff in action:

barcelona-78-road-johan-cruyff

 

 

21 thoughts on “Johan Cruyff died”

    2. I thought that it was Ckruiiiyffffffe, the absolute correct spelling of his name.

      This is the most important thing about the OP; no one can possibly focus on his amazing career until we sort this spelling thing out.

  6. Thank you professor Coyne for writing about it. In my mind, he is one of the greatest – if not the greatest – soccer player of all time. And I’m not just saying that because I’m Dutch.

    There have been many great players. Yet very few players changed the game. Johan Cruijff was a game changer. His philosophy about the space on the field, the role of soccer players and counterpressing laid the foundation for the best club in the world today: Barcelona.

    Cruijff was one of the first who also looked at what players were doing and how they could be useful without the ball. He made a lot of tactical improvements and most of them are widely applied today.

    Cruijff truly was a soccer genius.

  7. Truly a football genius. The freedom and innovation of the Dutch’s “total football” in the ’72 WC was breathtaking & so fun to watch. Didn’t know he was an atheist. If his stance was science-based it’s too bad he couldn’t see the link b/w smoking and lung cancer, or perhaps he just couldn’t kick the addiction to this scourge of humanity. RIP Johan.

    2. Cruijff even starred in a smoking advertisement in the 70’s. He quit smoking after a heart attack in 1991. Cruijff even made a anti-tabacco commercial for the Catalan government in which he says: “I’ve had two addictions in my life: smoking and playing football. Football has given me everything, whilst smoking almost took it all away”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g2xnbue_Vc

      So he had quit smoking 24/25 years ago. Yet it still caught up with him.

      1. Thanks for this info. Glad he was able quit. Too bad it caught up with him. His audacius PK with Ajax in ’82 was recently repeated by Lionel and his cohorts at Barca. Loved seeing that & I guess it works well every 30 yrs or so.

  8. I saw him live for Barça, dancing around the Villa in ooh…the late 70s. He was substituted after 70 minutes to a standing ovation with Barcelona 2-0 up. Catalonia’s finest collapsed without him. The Villa scored 2 in the last 10 minutes. The best and most beautiful player I ever saw. R.I.P. Johan.

  9. I remember watching him play in the 74 world cup. He was in a class by himself. The ball was glued to his foot. When he would get the ball the defenders would literally freeze and then start running like hell towards their end.

    1. France will have to really step up its security for this year’s European championships. And the Belgian police has to catch the failed suicide bomber from the Brussels massacre, who is still on the run, as well as his entire network of jihadi helpers in Belgium and France who shelter him, so that at least this Muslim group can’t do more damage during the Euros!

  11. Yes, possibly the greatest. Not just an outstanding footballer, but he transformed football into the beautiful game we like to watch.

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