Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff, who was diagnosed with lung cancer, died Thursday in Barcelona. He was 68. In October last year, Cruyff announced he had lung cancer. One month later he said he was convinced ‘he could win the battle’. But sadly he couldn’t.
“Johan Cruyff peacefully died in Barcelona, surrounded by his family after a hard-fought battle with cancer,” his website stated. “It’s with great sadness that we ask you to respect the privacy of the family during their time of grief.”
According to many, it was the Dutchman who revolutionised world soccer, by what he called ‘total football’. The world was amazed to see all the 11 players of the Dutch team attacking and defending at the same time. There was no fixed position for anybody and everybody performed their duties with elan. It is a different story though, that Holland did not win the 1974 World Cup going down to 1-2 to Germany in the final. But then they had changed the face of world football.
Former Indian captain Chuni Goswami, and a legend in his own right in the sub-continent, still remembers how Cryuff amazed him. “It was as if he was from a different planet,” Goswami stated Thursday in Kolkata. “What you see (Lionel) Messi doing today, the dribbles, the speed, the passes, Cryuff did it in 1974. He changed the face of world football.”
Yes, that is what Cryuff set out to do. In one of his famous team talks he told his mates, “Football is a game of 90 minutes out of which a player has the ball at the most for three minutes. However, what he does without the ball in the remaining 87 minutes is very important for the side.” He played with the same vision and his teams – Holland and FC Barcelona reaped rich rewards following his theory.
Goswami during the discussion also stated that some of Cryuff’s dribbles were so outrageous that left the defenders stunned. “Off the ball speed, turning with the ball to wrongfoot defenders, he was simply brilliant. In fact he was the ‘Pythagoras’ of modern football… a man who mixed technique with vision, skill and artistry. There will never be anyone like him,” Goswami stated.
Cruyff used to be a heavy smoker until 1991. After he was diagnosed with atherosclerosis at the age of 44 he had to undergo a bypass operation and quit smoking instantly.
