fbpx
Submit Guest Article
Join Our Team
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
Friday, May 9, 2025
Barça Buzz
Advertisement
  • Home
  • BarcaBuzz TV
    • BB Radio
  • Barça News
    • Transfer Rumors
  • Barça History
    • The Cruyff Story
    • Lionel Messi quotes
    • Xavi Quotes
    • Iniesta Quotes
  • La Masia
  • Merchandise
  • Community
    • Barça Travel
    • Barca songs
    • Gallery
    • Trivia
  • Analysis
  • Home
  • BarcaBuzz TV
    • BB Radio
  • Barça News
    • Transfer Rumors
  • Barça History
    • The Cruyff Story
    • Lionel Messi quotes
    • Xavi Quotes
    • Iniesta Quotes
  • La Masia
  • Merchandise
  • Community
    • Barça Travel
    • Barca songs
    • Gallery
    • Trivia
  • Analysis
No Result
View All Result
Barça Buzz
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • BarcaBuzz TV
  • Barça News
  • Barça History
  • La Masia
  • Merchandise
  • Community
  • Analysis
Home Barça History

Johan Cruyff : his football and life philosophy in 14 chapters : Part 1

Henk Slabbekoorn by Henk Slabbekoorn
9th May 2022
in Barça History
0
0
The Cruyff Story, Part 2 : You Learn To Play Football On The Streets
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatApp

Yesterday, Monday 25 April 2022 it has been 75 years ago that Hendrik Johannes Cruijff was born in Amsterdam. Unfortunately the football gods decided to take him away from us, more than 6 years ago already. But I honestly don’t know anyone in the world of sports and football in particular, who’s philosophy and ideas are still so much alive.

Johan Cruyff, he has an international family name where the Dutch ‘ij’ is replaced with the more common ‘y’, is still visible in the world of football today. Although the philosophy of ‘total football’ which he promoted and educated so well is almost 60 years old. His followers like Pep Guardiola, Erik ten Hag, Peter Bosz and Xavi Hernandez still keep on developing and improving his philosophy.

And you could say coaches like Jürgen Klopp, Hans-Dieter Flick, Louis van Gaal, Thomas Tüchel, Julian Nagelsmann, Alfred Schreuder and Marco Bielsa are heavily influenced by parts of his philosophy and use it on the pitch to create teams who play attacking football with high press.

To honor Cruyff’s legacy, I have written this article based on 14 important pieces of Johan’s football and life philosophy.

From our Youtube

The result is not sacred, the way we play is

The decade of catenaccio, of winning in the most efficient way imaginable, came to an end when the world was introduced to a new phenomenon. Cruijff, Hendrikus Johannes, Phenomenon, as poet, football geek and Voetbal International (VI, the largest football magazine in the Netherlands) columnist Nico Scheepmaker praised him in book form in 1972.  The James Dean of Football would Arsène Wenger later call him in VI. ‘Cruyff was a source of inspiration for my entire generation. Also because of its appearance. His whole behavior radiated freedom.’

This player was simply irresistible.

That spying gaze, the constant pointing, the constant talking. The sneaky locks that stuck to his face from sweat or danced behind him when he put it on a walk again. From zero to a hundred in a beat, because of that white shirt with red stripe a barely visible with the naked eye on the somewhat grubby, dark images of that time. Why with an inside foot when it is also possible with the outside, and the ball is even better able to find a never suspected way through a forest of legs? Even as he jumped high to avoid an incoming keeper, the football lover groaned with delight.

Understanding that football is an entertainment

Apart from his rebellious appearance, the gracefulness, the finesse, the class that dripped from his game, his approach to football was also extraordinary. And highly attractive. He not only played for his own pleasure, for his own honor and glory, but was also a servant of the people. The audience had to be entertained from minute one to minute ninety, that was his firm conviction. ‘If you’re 4-0 up and there are still ten minutes to go’, he once told Barend & Van Dorp, ‘it’s better to shoot two balls on the crossbar. So that people call uh and ah. Because if you make it 5-0, it’s only for the score.’

Especially abroad, such statements were scorned. A player who won the European Cup I (UCL nowadays) three times, the Dutch national title nine times and the Spanish one once, couldn’t mean that, could he? But Cruyff has always persisted that he really looked at his sport that way. “Of course I would have loved to win that final in Munich,” he sometimes said, for example, when people asked him about the lost World Cup final of 1974, “but the fact that people all over the world still talk about us as the team that played the most beautiful football is for me a bigger victory than that cup.”

Taking the next step

And after that wonderful player, who more than held his own in top football until he was 37, came the coach, or technical director. A role in which he no longer had to deal with people above him who had something to say about the way of playing. He didn’t take that anymore anyway. This allowed him to leave his mark even more on a team, on a club (including youth academy). Even more going his way with tactical finds, which, as you will read later in this special, are still used in football in 2022.

He was a football romantic, yes, but also because that’s how you have the best chance of success. “What I attached great importance to as a player and coach,” he once explained, “was not just winning, but also the way in which is important. So the fun. Actually, I find pleasure even more beautiful than the return, although of course you can not have fun if there is no return at all. But I never wanted to be with a team that wins everything, but whose football is not to be seen. In my opinion, everything you do based on an obligation never has a really high return.’

‘The value of beautiful football? It’s a pleasure you have in football year after year. Satisfaction. What good is it if I can hold a cup once and then nothing remains? I am sure: if you play really good football, you win an x-percentage of matches. Then it can depend on one or two matches whether you become champion or win that cup. But if you don’t play good football, you don’t have that in your own hands at all.’

Eternal influence

After he had already touched Ajax and Barcelona as helmsman within the four lines, he gave both clubs even more of themselves as a coach and later advisor. He gave them something of their own for eternity. Just as Cruyff was, Ajax and Barcelona are different from the rest in international football.

In the best sense of that word, according to Pep Guardiola. The man who owes his career as a player (Cruyff brought him out of seemingly nothing to the first team) and coach (after the departure of Frank Rijkaard Cruyff put him forward after one year of Barça B) to Number 14, does not let a moment pass by to explain his admiration for the Dutchman in detail.

When the current manager of Manchester City is once again complimented for the attacking and dominant play of his teams, he regularly gives Cruyff part of the credit. In the days of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta’s Barcelona, he spoke of a cathedral that his teacher had built in the heart of Catalonia. And that was only his and others’ job to maintain and renovate it. ‘No one in the world has given football as much as Johan Cruyff.’

Next chapter: 2. You learn to play football on the streets


Sources:

  • Voetbal International (vi.nl)
  • Johan Cruyff Institute (cruyffinstitute.nl)
  • AFCAjax (www.ajax.nl)
  • FCBarcelona (www.fcbarcelona.com)
Henk Slabbekoorn
Henk Slabbekoorn

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related


Discover more from Barça Buzz

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Tags: CruyffThe Cruyff Story
Henk Slabbekoorn

Henk Slabbekoorn

Related Posts

5 Players Who Played for Both Barcelona and Benfica
Barça History

5 Players Who Played for Both Barcelona and Benfica

4th March 2025
RIP César Luis Menotti – ‘El Flaco’
Barça History

RIP César Luis Menotti – ‘El Flaco’

5th May 2024
The Kidnapping of Quini : Story of Triumph, Tragedy and Forgiveness
Barça History

The Kidnapping of Quini : Story of Triumph, Tragedy and Forgiveness

25th March 2024
30 Years On : Reliving the Dream Team ‘Manita’ Over Madrid
Barça History

30 Years On : Reliving the Dream Team ‘Manita’ Over Madrid

8th January 2024
Barça Mourns the Loss of the Legendary Terry Venables
Barça History

Barça Mourns the Loss of the Legendary Terry Venables

26th November 2023
Worst injuries ever in FC Barcelona
Barça History

Worst injuries ever in FC Barcelona

21st November 2023
Load More
Next Post
Araujo finally signs the contract extention

Official : Ronald Araujo extends his contract until 2026

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

La Liga Table

Standings provided by Sofascore

Subscribe to BarcaBuzz

Enter your email address and receive updates for new article by email.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
barca songs

The Barca songs – Time to learn (With English Subtitles)

4th May 2023
What really happened between Leo Messi and Gerard Pique?

What really happened between Leo Messi and Gerard Pique?

6th November 2022
Former La Masia players in Europe – Part 1

Former La Masia players in Europe – Part 1

24th June 2023
What’s true and What’s not about the FC Barcelona financial status

What’s true and What’s not about the FC Barcelona financial status

11th July 2022

Joan Laporta : “I turned down a 250 million offer for young Leo Messi”

6
signing pjanic makes sense?

Opinion : Is signing Miralem Pjanic makes sense after all?

5
xavi announces leaving

TBT : May 21 – The day Xavi announced that he will leave Barcelona

5
pep

TBT : Appointing Pep Guardiola, against all odds

5
From Chaos to Clásico: Barça’s Copa Dream Lives On

Match Preview : Inter Milan VS Barça – UCL Semi Final 2nd Leg

6th May 2025
Marcus Thuram -The Barça Kid Who Came Back to Haunt Us

Marcus Thuram -The Barça Kid Who Came Back to Haunt Us

5th May 2025
Match Review : Valladolid vs Barcelona (1-2)

Match Review : Valladolid vs Barcelona (1-2)

3rd May 2025
Match Preview – Real Valladolid VS Barça

Match Preview – Real Valladolid VS Barça

3rd May 2025

BB Radio

Recommended

From Chaos to Clásico: Barça’s Copa Dream Lives On

Match Preview : Inter Milan VS Barça – UCL Semi Final 2nd Leg

6th May 2025
Marcus Thuram -The Barça Kid Who Came Back to Haunt Us

Marcus Thuram -The Barça Kid Who Came Back to Haunt Us

5th May 2025
Match Review : Valladolid vs Barcelona (1-2)

Match Review : Valladolid vs Barcelona (1-2)

3rd May 2025
Match Preview – Real Valladolid VS Barça

Match Preview – Real Valladolid VS Barça

3rd May 2025
uh07p1j9l95kqz46hg39xy0953z15ia81ybp6tb8x19
    The Instagram Access Token is expired, Go to the Customizer > JNews : Social, Like & View > Instagram Feed Setting, to refresh it.
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube TikTok

About Us

An independent source of information about FC Barcelona. We are here to bring you the latest news and analyze everything related to our beloved team. Força Barça!

Categories

  • Analysis
  • Barça Basket
  • Barça Femeni
  • Barça History
  • Barça News
  • Barça Travel
  • La Masia
  • Profiles
  • Transfer Rumors

Archives

© 2022 Barcabuzz - Sharing what's Buzzing with Barça.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • BarcaBuzz TV
    • BB Radio
  • Barça News
    • Transfer Rumors
  • Barça History
    • The Cruyff Story
    • Lionel Messi quotes
    • Xavi Quotes
    • Iniesta Quotes
  • La Masia
  • Merchandise
  • Community
    • Barça Travel
    • Barca songs
    • Gallery
    • Trivia
  • Analysis

© 2022 Barcabuzz - Sharing what's Buzzing with Barça.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Discover more from Barça Buzz

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

%d