Johan Cruyff: ‘Maybe we were the real winners in 1974. The world remembers our team more’

Donald McRae remembers when he met the Dutch master in Amsterdam in 2014, a conversation that revealed a lot of Cruyff and his vision of life

"Okay," said Johan Cruyff, stroking me reassuringly on the arm. We sat on a small sofa at the old Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam in September 2014. "Many of these long ones don't do this anymore," Cruyff muttered after I offered a small excuse for him to endure yet another interview. 67-year-old was in his hometown for the day, having flown from Barcelona. He shrugged nonchalantly. "We will make this one correctly. I see a lot of questions. "

Cruyff is being held up by my stained sheet of paper, on which I had poured a cup of coffee a few hours earlier and looked quizzically my Doodle spider. I had written down 42 questions. "42?" Cruyff said. "You know that I have a flight to catch back to Barcelona tonight?"

I knew she was joking and so I turned the page to reveal another six questions on the back. "Oh ... so now is the 48?" Cruyff said, smiling. "Let's see if we have enough time for the first page".

Of course none of us knew then that in 18 months Cruyff would die. When I heard the news on Thursday, I pulled out our interview. I enjoyed hearing the way, after we left comedian, Cruyff ignored the Convention. As the respondent, started with me a question. I enjoyed the day?

I spent the next morning Cruyff faded around the arena, as he set out a series of mini-games of tennis or volleyball, basketball or football five-a-side, with hundreds of disabled children who have benefited from its foundation. Normally the idea of "shadowing" a former sportsman would hold little appeal. But the chance to spend time with Cruyff, a mesmeric footballer and most influential thinker in the modern game as a coach for Ajax and, above all, Barcelona was different.

There were times when he seemed bored or tired, especially when he was being fondled by a grown man dressed as a mascot "Cruyffie". Passing from one game to another which was surrounded by beaming children or parents who want to shake his hand or have their picture taken with him. But Cruyff remained in good spirits even when he netted a backhand in a delicate game of tennis. Stared at his racket in disbelief – as if he could not understand why they looked so clumsy in his hand than I felt a ball and chain.

So I could respond positively and say, Yes, I had enjoyed myself. Cruyff nodded and then talked for five minutes unstoppable lessons we could all learn from disabled children. "It's beautiful and the crazy thing is that I'm trying to help them, but they are helping me. The Chairman of Paralympics once told me the difference between able-bodied persons and the disabled. He said: ' disabled people do not think about what they don't have. They just think that they have. ' If only all of us could learn to think like this. Always surprise me. If you see what they can do and how they can develop as a person, you learn a lot of things. "

Have to start with my list of questions, forced my way into his monologue as a clumsy Defender hacking down the Ballet Cruyff in full flight. Cruyff realized that part of my job was for him to drive in the direction of addressing the location of Louis van Gaal, his old enemy, who had served as manager of Manchester United for a few months. He was reluctant to start another spat with "militaristic" Van Gaal and Cruyff so I asked to expand on their conflicting perceptions of football.

"Now this is more interesting than me just saying that van Gaal is going to do a bad job," said Cruyff. "I don't care too much about it. We are both Dutch but there is a big difference between us. I always think of being responsible for the speed and ball. Perhaps he knows more than I do, but I always want to control. When I don't have control of the ball, what do I do? I have to press to get it back. Is a way to defend. But most important is that I like to have the ball. That is why I believe in individual coaching sessions to prepare the players properly. You have to take care of the individual for the benefit of the team – as showed our work with Pep Guardiola.

Then I put aside my list of questions. It seemed more important to listen to Cruyff and react to the conversation, rather than sticking to a fixed set of queries. Cruyff had come alive. "I'm happy if my players start thinking. Guardiola is a good example. As a player he was tactically perfect, but said that he can not defend. I said: ' I agree – in a limited way. You're a bad defensive player, if you have to cover the entire area. But if you have to defend this small area, then you're the best. Make sure that there are people to cover


Cruyff has not given me a quote killer mock Van Gaal as an idiot destined to fail at Old Trafford, but I liked the way they moved from talking about Guardiola for coaches British, Keith Spurgeon and Vic Buckingham, who had shaped his career. They instilled discipline in brilliance maverick of Cruyff and Buckingham had chosen him for his debut for Ajax in November 1964 – and he has coached at Barcelona.

"Keith and Vic gave us some professionalism because they were much farther down the road than we have been in the Netherlands. But the tactical thinking came later with Rinus Michels ".

Don't press Cruyff in rehashing all that he and Michels had caught up with their successful innovations of total football. He didn't seem sentimental or nostalgic man. I wrote about it at the time but Cruyff was also more interested in the fact that "I still feel football is far enough behind other sports.

"If you take the golf, you have a teacher for unity, a teacher for the game to approach and a teacher for the putt. Here are three specialized coaches for one player. In football a coach looks after 25 players. You can't compare a center forward with an outer or right midfield player. Your game must have many different qualities and physical abilities. That is why I believe in individual coaching sessions. You need to take care of the individual. "

Only when addressing how money had became corroded elegiac purity of football. "Football is now all about money. There are problems with the values within the game. This is sad because football is the most beautiful game. And we can play in the street. And we can play anywhere. Everyone can play if you are tall or small, fat or thin. But these values are being lost. We have to bring them back. "

There were surprises, too, as Cruyff hailed the work of Roberto Martínez to Everton. The previous season Everton had finished just outside the Champions League positions and Cruyff said: "If you see how Martínez did – and Roberto is a good friend of mine – you will see a success story. OK, did not win the Championship, but everyone was happy. "

That may not be the word that anyone would use to describe the mood at Goodison Park under Martínez today. Cruyff has also expressed uncertainty as three big players in Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez may gel together in the same line ahead of Barcelona. Now I'd like to think that one of the pleasures of the last few months of the life of Cruyff would have been looking at the glistening, subtle threat of attack with three points of Barcelona.

Cruyff was human – if netting a backhand on a makeshift field or, Thursday, succumbing to the ravages of cancer. But on a cloudy day in September 2014 seemed full of life. He tired only when he told me why he needed to return to Barcelona that night. "Tomorrow I have a meeting with Uefa, Platini [Michel] and all the sponsors."

His disgruntled expression spoke volumes. Cruyff was happier talking more philosophically. "It's like everything in football – and life. You need to look at, you need to think, move, you need to find space, you must help others. It is very simple in the end. "


Even after a memo that was soon to present certain awards at the end of a long day she kept chatting. Where I've been? South Africa?

As soon as I confirmed that the truth was away on a new topic. We talked about football in Africa before I tried to convey what it meant when, after the television was readmitted to apartheid, the first televised sporting event we saw in South Africa was 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Holland lost in the final against the hosts.

As a schoolboy I was entranced enough to regret the fact that we had not seen the previous World Cup when a Dutch team even better, with Cruyff at his peak, he had also lost in the final to West Germany. Cruyff looked at me intently. "Yes, but maybe we were the real winners in the end," she said, her eyes close together suddenly flaring. "I think the world remember our team anymore."

It was a flash of male driven that Cruyff had been as a football player and coach. He relaxed again and switched into his native language, asking if I could understand Dutch. I answered in Afrikaans, saying, "just a little". Was enough to get by when, again in Dutch, asked me if I was happy with the interview. I did enough to write?

When he nodded and thanked him reached to take his hand. "We answered all 48 questions," said Cruyff. "But maybe it's better that way? A conversation is more interesting than an interview. "
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