‘Total football’: Dutch legend Johan Cruyff dies at 68 after battle with lung cancer
After a five-month battle with lung cancer, tributes pour in and fans mourn the visionary player who was pivotal in changing how the game was played with his now-famous ‘Cruyff turn’
Johan Cruyff, one of soccer’s greatest players and most influential and visionary coaches, died aged 68 on Thursday after a five-month battle with lung cancer.
His death was announced on his website and soon after by De Telegraaf newspaper, for whom he wrote a weekly column that was often controversial, but always eagerly anticipated.
An ex-smoker who had heart surgery in 1991, Cruyff joined Ajax Amsterdam as a long-haired teenager before emerging as one of the world’s greats in the early 1970s.
Football has lost a man who did more to make the beautiful game beautiful than anyone in history
He helped Ajax Amsterdam win three European Cups in a row from 1971-73 and also named European Footballer of the Year in 1971, 1973 and 1974.
Born Hendrik Johannes Cruyff, he joined Barcelona for a then world record transfer fee of US$2 million, and it was Barcelona that would later define his coaching career, helping the Catalan club to win their first La Liga title in nearly 15 years in 1974.
He was also a key player in the great Netherlands team that reached the 1974 World Cup final when, for the first time, during the tournament a global audience saw him perform the now-famous “Cruyff turn” the movement in which the player with the ball plays it behind their own leg before swerving away in the direction of the ball.