This feature is part of Virtuoso It was November 2005, at the Santiago Bernabéu, when Ronaldinho took Real Madrid apart with such speed and flair that at least two nervous looking Madridistas…
Tag: cruyff
Is Total Football, the Holy Grail of the modern game, still alive in the sport today?
In King Lear, when the hapless footman Oswald is tripped up by a duke and called a “base football player”, the audience is expected to sneer and snicker. Indeed, in the 16th…
How the Johans, Cruyff and Neeskens, changed the dynamic of football forever
This feature is part of Duology In school, one learns about the importance of a literary foil – a character whose qualities and attributes contrast with the protagonist while highlighting important elements…
Willy Dullens: the Dutch talent many thought could’ve been better than Cruyff
Johan Cruyff is one of the true legends of football, and without any doubt the biggest Dutch star of all time, however it wasn’t always that way. In his younger years at…
The golden memory of watching Johan Cruyff play football
This feature is a part of Hot Bovril and Cold Terraces, a series looking at first-hand memories of football before the flash. If you get the opportunity to see a legend in…
The World Cup Series: 1970 and 1974
Join host Jim Hart and World Cup experts Gary Thacker and Steven Scragg as they analyse what many consider to be the two greatest World Cups - 1970 and 1974. From the…
MTV, Oscar Wilde and the implosion of Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team
I’VE HEARD IT SAID that non-football fans are – to paraphrase Bart Simpson – the MTV Generation, knowing neither highs nor lows. Anyone not hooked up with a femme fatale of a…
The decline of Dutch ball-playing centre-backs
BARRY HULSHOFF – beard unkempt, socks rolled down and a mullet with a life of its own – was something of a prototype. Looking something like the love child of Rod Stewart…
The in-depth history of Ajax and Barcelona’s unique relationship
To a child falling in love with football right now, there’s a world of difference between FC Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam. Barcelona play in a popular league with megastars in every position,…
Johan Cruyff: talent spotter, manager, orchestrator and genius
Illustration by Federico Manasse The multifarious sphere of footballing history encompasses many greats. Some prove greatness via a trophy cabinet, some gain notoriety for a single goal or piece of skill, some…
Johan Cruyff: the American diaries
Johan Cruyff’s impact on football was far-reaching to say the least. His influence on the game in the Netherlands and Spain has been rightly lauded, and his role in the revolutionary Total…
Jordi Cruyff and a career unfairly spent in the shadows
NATURE OR NURTURE? It’s a question psychologists have debated for centuries. In the context of sport, it’s interesting that so many gifted individuals have raised children who have also gone on to…
Netherlands
No country has given more to the modern game than the Netherlands and no single city has given more than Amsterdam. Simply put, it’s a nation that has reinvented, redefined and reshaped…
The renaissance of Ajax, a superclub back on the map
Pareidolia – the perceiving of familiarity where none exists – is a more common psychological phenomenon than you might think. Frequently reported examples include; finding images in cloud formations, visualising a man…
Where do you draw the line between progression and success?
After Luis Enrique announced his seemingly inevitable resignation as Barcelona coach, he made a poignant statement: “The reason clearly had to do with the way of life I need to have in this…
How society and politics gave us Catenaccio and Total Football
BENEDIKT TASCHEN’S BOOK ON 1970s FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY is titled The Age of Innocence. An apt title, perhaps – it was the final time when footballers were still at some level “our lads”, clubs…
The colossal legacy of Ajax mentor Jany van der Veen
*Main photo: Jany van der Veen is standing in the back row, fifth from the left Many remember the great Ajax team that dominated the 1970s and the legendary Dutch side that…
‘That was Cruyff’: how one man changed football
‘That was Cruyff’. So many things in football are indeed Johan Cruyff. Senior TFT writer Jon Townsend, a man heavily influenced by Cruyff as a player and now coach, looks back in celebratory fashion at the beautiful gifts the Dutch legend left behind.