After 14 minutes, last nights friendly between Feyenoord and Sparta was stopped for a minute long applause in memory of Johan Cruyff. The Netherlands' friendly v France will be also be stopped after 14 mins.
"I once made love for an hour and fifteen minutes, but it was the night the clocks are set ahead." - Garry Shandling
In the last 50 years the best players have been Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Ronaldo and Messi. Opinions may differ who is the best and it's very hard to decide when faced with YouTube compliations of their best moments. But Cruyff, beyond his individual talents as a player, was a leader, a thinker, a manager and someone who invented a new way of playing and thinking about football. The other 4 can't hold a candle to him in that respect. Maradona almost single handedly won the WC in 86 - a cup Cruyff never won, and was a leader in that respect. But the vain and shallow Ronaldo, the quiet and workmanlike Messi, will leave nothing like the legacy Cruyff has done.
I wonder if Cruyff regretted not going to the 1978 World Cup. Holland were still good enough to get to the final. That's a big what might have been.
That final was real football. 1966 was a finals where teams and players were kicked out of the tournament. Now there's hardly a strong tackle. But the final in 1978 was really gladatorial with skill.
Would be brilliant to see a few Cruyff turns on the pitch in the upcoming international games, what a tribute that would be
The woman who does Newsnight actually did a Cruyff turn at the end of the show last night, they had a couple of footy tricksters on to show her how to do it. Tried to find a link it will be on I-Player at the end of last nights programme. Wonder if Paxman would have had a go at that...
To be fair to him, I doubt he ever regretted it. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/apr/17/newsstory.sport
Any list of best players has to include Di Stefano. And George Best. What makes Cruyff stand out is what he achieved as a manager and organiser.
Time to judge Messi will be when he has hung up his boots, but it seems to be his range of skills is more limited compared to Cruyff, although his speed of feet, close control, ability to wriggle through even the best massed defences is almost freakish. Don't think we'll ever see the mass apprehension that Maradona induced in a whole team any time soon. There is that famous pic of him in the WCSF 86 v Belgium with about 6 Belgian players looking scared as Maradona has the ball at his feet. Messi plays with Neymar and Suarez, Maradona played with also rans at Napoli (the best of whom was the young Zola) and lifted them to win the league in what was the toughest and best league in the world. Ultimately, regardless of eye catching skills, you have to take onto account what they brought to their team or country.
The difference between Cruyff and all the others, is he's the only top player who also went on to be a top manager.
