Johan Cruyff won the Ballon d'Or three times and led the Dutch national team to the final of the 1974 World Cup. Cruyff started his career at Ajax where he won eight national titles and three European Cups. In 1973 he moved to Barcelona for a world record transfer fee, winning La Liga in his first season. He was a proponent of the philosophy known as "Total Football." In 1999, Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century. After his retirement in 1984, he became the manager of Ajax and later FC Barcelona. He managed the Cruyff Foundation, the Cruyff Institute, Cruyff Classics, and the Cruyff Library, and wrote a weekly column for De Telegraaf. Cruyff passed away in March 2016, in Barcelona.
"Johan Cruyff painted the chapel, and Barcelona coaches since merely restore or improve it" -- Pep Guardiola on Cruyff's work at the Nou Camp. "He is like the Godfather of Dutch football" -- Frank Rijkaard. "Pythagoras in boots. Few have been able to exert, both physically and mentally, such mesmeric control on a match from one penalty area to another" -- David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange. "He was at the heart of a revolution with his football. Ajax changed football and he was the leader of it all. If he wanted he could be the best player in any position on the pitch" -- Eric Cantona. "The proudest moment of my career. I thought I'd win the ball for sure, but he tricked me. I was not humiliated. I had no chance. Cruyff was a genius" -- Jan Olsson, the Sweden defender who was tricked by the Cruyff Turn at the 1974 World Cup. "As a player he turned football into an art form. Johan came along and revolutionised everything. The modern-day Barca started with him, he is the expression of our identity, he brought us a style of football we love" -- the former Barcelona president Joan Laporta. "He has had the biggest influence on football out of anyone in the world, first as a player and then as a coach" -- Guardiola again.
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