Football lost a revolutionary individual today as Dutch legend Johan Cruyff died aged 68 in Barcelona earlier today.
Cruyff was a well-documented smoker until he underwent heart surgery in 1991. He’s been battling lung cancer for some time, though he only made the news public in October 2015.
His passing comes as a major shock, considering that Cruyff claimed to be ‘2-0 up’ in his battle against lung cancer last month. But an official statement on his website announced the unfortunate news earlier today, which sent shock waves around the globe.
“On March 24 2016 Johan Cruyff (68) died peacefully in Barcelona, surrounded by his family after a hard-fought battle with cancer. It’s with great sadness that we ask you to respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief,” the statement read.
As a tribute to a man who undoubtedly revolutionized football throughout his incredible career as a player and coach, we’ve compiled a list of his 10 best quotes that will change the way you look at football.
1) “What is speed? The sports press often confuse speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.”
2) “Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally, I’d be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I’d have eliminated two rivals after the first round. That’s how I think. Idealisitic.”
3) “Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team-mate.”
4) “I find it terrible when talents are rejected based on computer stats. Based on the criteria at Ajax now I would have been rejected. When I was 15, I couldn’t kick a ball 15 meters with my left and maybe 20 with my right. My qualities technique and vision, are not detectable by a computer.”
5) “In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.”
6) “If you have the ball you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don’t have the ball you must make it as small as possible.”
7) “After you’ve won something, you’re no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It’s like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterwards there’s a little less gas inside.”
8) “Players that aren’t true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes.”
9) “When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not.”
10) “There are very few players who know what to do when they’re not marked. So sometimes you tell a player: that attacker is very good, but don’t mark him.”
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