The maestro who pioneered total football

AMSTERDAM: On March 24, 2016, world football lost one of its richest talents. Johan Cruyff stepped out of Pele’s shadow to assume greatness during the early 1970s and joined the Brazilian superstar among a pantheon which has since admitted Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

A striker blessed with sublime skill — a fact to which Sweden defender Jan Olsson can painfully attest — the Dutchman changed the way football was played at the highest level and inspired new generations to attempt what for most proved impossible, but for him, came instinctively. Cruyff also took his talent for innovation into coaching, adapting the ‘Total Football’ philosophy of his mentor Rinus Michels and developing it to stunning effect. Hendrik Johannes Cruijff was born in Amsterdam on April 25, 1947 and his fledgling talent was spotted early by Ajax, where his mother worked as a cleaner.

Having progressed through the youth ranks, he made his senior debut as a 17-year-old in 1965 and marked his emergence from the ranks with a goal to serve warning of what was to follow, although few who witness his first steps in the professional game could have predicted quite how far he would go in the game. The Amsterdam club won six league titles between 1966 and 1973 and five Dutch cups, but also took continental football by storm as they lifted the European Cup in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

Such was Cruyff’s influence that he was named European Footballer of the Year in 1971, 1973 and 1974.