He burst on to the footballing scene in the early 1970s when he helped Ajax win seven league titles and three European Cups in a row from 1971-73.
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Cruyff was diagnosed with Lung Cancer last October, but had the belief that he could beat the disgusting disease. He said in February it felt like he was “2-0 up in a match” against cancer.
Football lost one of its greatest players, coaches, administrators, personalities, influencers today, when the legendary Johan Cruyff passed away on Tuesday after a hard-fought battle with lung cancer.
The Dutch football association posted on Twitter: “With great sadness we have learned of the death of Johan Cruyff”.
Cruyff, 68, who died Thursday, joined his former coach, Rinus Michels, with the Los Angeles Aztecs in ’79, a year after refusing to play in the World Cup, at the time stating he was protesting against the military regime in Argentina but later saying he feared a kidnap attempt.
Cruyff spent the best years of his playing career with Ajax at the De Meer stadium, which was demolished when the Amsterdam ArenA was opened in 1996.
Even off the field, Cruyff achieved incredible feats, including leading Barcelona to its first European Cup title as manager in 1992.
Cruyff, who died on Thursday at the age of 68, and Van Gaal played together at Ajax, each managed at the club, and later followed each other as Barcelona coach, with the current Manchester United boss succeeding Cruyff at the Camp Nou in 1997.
Unquestionably the best player in the world in that period, he was voted three times victor of the prestigious Ballon d’Or so that he is now often mentioned alongside the pair widely considered the finest to have played the game, Pele and Diego Maradona. In charge of Ajax he won two KNVB Cups and the Cup Winners’ Cup, although an Eredivisie title eluded him, while he won four Spanish titles and the European Cup in charge of Barcelona in the 1990s. “I don’t think that we’ll see too many Johan Cruyff’s in our lifetime”. “He’s certainly one of the guys who changed football”. Looking at him in the football world, if he hasn’t had some bit of difference on you as a person in football, I don’t know what you’re doing in football. He was not only a very good friend but also a brother to me.
Platini added: “I played with him in his testimonial at the end of his Barcelona career”.
– In the 1974 World Cup, Cruyff was also the player who created the most chances (36) and completed the most passes in the final third of the pitch (136).
Cruyff was the original centerpiece of ‘Total Football, ‘ the idea that any outfield player can shift into any position on the field.
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Barcelona tweeted: “We’ll always love you, Johan”.
