Why did johan cruyff

The Dutch reached the final - despite being beaten by Scotland in the group stages - but lost to the hosts, and many blamed Cruyff's absence for their failure to lift the trophy. At the time, speculation over the reasons for his decision was rife. It was claimed he had fallen out with the Dutch football association over sponsorship. Or maybe he objected to Argentina's rightwing military junta. Now 30 years on, Cruyff has finally broken his silence to reveal the real reason for his no-show on football's biggest stage.

The former Ajax and Barcelona player has revealed that he and his family had been the victims of a kidnap attempt a few months before the tournament. He said several criminals entered his house in Barcelona at night and tied him and his family up at gunpoint. The experience changed his attitude to life and was part of the reason he decided not to play in the World Cup. In an interview with Catalunya Radio, Cruyff said: "You should know that I had problems at the end of my career as a player here and I don't know if you know that someone [put] a rifle at my head and tied me up and tied up my wife in front of the children at our flat in Barcelona.

The Dutch superstar managed to escape and the kidnap attempt was foiled. But Cruyff said it changed his outlook on life. The police slept in our house for three or four months.

I was going to matches with a bodyguard," he said. Cruyff delivered one of the greatest individual World Cups ever, while that Oranje side remain arguably the best team not to conquer the competition. After impressing in the Ajax dugout, Cruyff was made Barcelona coach in , immediately creating the exhilarating 'Dream Team'. Fundamentally, he pushed for the founding of La Masia and persuaded the club to abandon its policy of rejecting anyone smaller than 1.

Cruyff almost doubled the world-transfer record when he joined Barcelona from Ajax. Only one man had seized the prize with more than double the votes of his runner-up — Alfredo Di Stefano in — until Cruyff did it twice. Cruyff almost joined Leicester City in The Foxes boasted Gary Lineker at that time. There are a lot of disciples [in management]," Jordi says. They go their own path, but they all share the same language as my father's footballing philosophy.

Before he came we didn't have a cathedral of football, this beautiful church, at Barcelona. We needed something new. And now it is something that has lasted. It was built by one man, by Johan Cruyff, stone by stone. That's why he was special. While the La Masia production line had dried up in recent seasons, there are signs that the Barca academy is again gaining prominence.

Pedri is another youngster in the first-team, though developed at Las Palmas, while Ronald Araujo had two seasons in the B-Team, having joined from Uruguay 's Boston River. All three presidential candidates that ran in -- Joan Laporta, Victor Font and Toni Freixa -- had the rejuvenation of La Masia as a priority in their manifestos.

As the winner of that race, Laporta, embarks on his second stint as Barca president, Cruyff was clearly central to Laporta's vision. I completely identify with his way of seeing football and we will have him present in our thoughts when it comes to making decisions," Laporta said in January But it's a political, tactically smart way of using his name.

Perhaps the truest embodiment of Cruyff's values, five years after his passing, is found in his Institute and Foundation. Jordi says the Cruyff Foundation was like another child to his late father and the inspiration behind both organizations came from Johan's own experiences. Johan never finished school, but he was adamant that his children and others would not make the same decision.

The Institute has five postgraduate centres the world over alongside three academies and two colleges. The Foundation, which has helped thousands of children through sport, came from Johan's belief that sport can help heal society.

Jordi remembers when, in America, they lived next door to a boy called John-John, who had Down's syndrome. John-John wanted to play football with the other children on the street but was left out. So Johan started to "train on the street, only with John-John," Jordi says. He made the foundation after that. Cruyff Football -- another arm of the "World of Johan Cruyff" body that brings it all together -- is focused on teaching his football methods and is run by ex-Barcelona academy coach Albert Capellas.

Then there is Volendam -- the second-division Dutch side where former Ajax players Wim Jonk and Ruben Jongkind took charge in April -- still living and breathing Cruyff's philosophy in life, society and football.

Jongkind is one of Cruyff's most evangelical disciples and was close to Johan through to his death from lung cancer that had metastasized to his brain in early We will create a La Masia 2. Cruyff's legacy still permeates through football and remains both the philosophy and culture Barcelona fans still pine after. When Johan died on March 24, , his family held a private funeral while Barcelona put together a memorial for their supporters, which saw thousands flock through paying their tributes to the man who made Barcelona the club we know today.

That's why we had to open up the funeral so everyone could say goodbye. And that is probably the biggest truth I have said about my father in a long time, and the best way to summarise who Johan Cruyff was.

Barcelona face a defining year. Laporta knows Cruyff and his legacy will not be far from their thoughts, nor the supporters' expectations, as they attempt to keep Lionel Messi with the only club he's ever known while building another winning team around him. The philosophy was to eliminate any weakness in the team. Every outfield player must be comfortable in playing in any given position and Johan was the centrepiece of the grand puzzle.

Johan Cruyff, byname of Hendrik Johannes Cruijff, born April 25, , Amsterdam, Netherlands—died March 24, , Barcelona, Spain , Dutch football soccer forward renowned for his imaginative playmaking. He won numerous honours, including European Footballer of the Year , , and Cruyff had a separate sponsorship deal with Puma.

From onwards, he wore the number 14 jersey for the Netherlands, setting a trend for wearing shirt numbers outside the usual starting line-up numbers of 1 to How did George Best die?