Johan Cruyff

On paper Johan Cruyff was Ajax's centre forward, but he rarely stayed where the team sheet put him. He drifted to the wings or dropped into midfield: if his marker stayed put, Ajax had a spare man there, and if the marker followed, a teammate could run into the space he had left. He was scorer, creator and crosser at once, and teammates learned to adjust around his wandering. He called it "controlled chaos". Today we would call it playing as a false nine. The tools behind it were pace, sharp acceleration, skilful dribbling and a constant awareness of where his teammates were as a move developed. Against Sweden at the 1974 World Cup he hooked the ball with his heel past his own standing leg so suddenly that the defender Jan Olsson lost his footing. Dutch fans had seen the trick from him for years, but for everyone else that Cruyff Turn became one of the defining images of the tournament. In that tournament he also opened gaps with quick dribbling and accurate long passes, and he was voted its best player even though the Netherlands lost the final. At his peak he settled big games himself. He scored both goals in the 1972 European Cup final against Inter, one of three straight European Cups with Ajax, and won the Ballon d'Or three times. After a world-record move to Barcelona he dribbled past three Real Madrid players to score in a 5–0 win at the Bernabéu, then dropped back at times to help defend. He was not always like that. In his early seasons he could vanish in big matches or lose himself in solo runs instead of passing, which made him unpopular with teammates. He was a chain smoker who hated the demanding training under Rinus Michels and now and then tried to hide on runs in the woods, and Michels more than once suspected him of faking injuries. Tight man-marking could blunt him: in the 1974 final he won a penalty before West Germany had touched the ball, then Berti Vogts largely shut him out. He also had a temper, and was the first Dutch international to be sent off. What set him apart most was his head. On the pitch he behaved like a player-coach, directing teammates, ordering changes of position and sometimes even demanding substitutions. Defender Barry Hulshoff recalled that "Cruyff always talked about where people should run, where they should stand, where they should not be moving." Back at Ajax at 34 and past his physical best, he leaned on reading situations earlier than his opponents and led a young side including Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten to two league titles. Franz Beckenbauer, who beat him in that 1974 final, put it simply: "Johan was the better player, but I am a world champion."