Johan Cruyff Quotes: Johan Cruyff, whose full name was Hendrik Johannes Cruijff, was a Dutch football (soccer) legend and one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport. He was born on April 25, 1947, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and passed away on March 24, 2016.
Cruyff is often regarded as one of the greatest footballers ever, known for his exceptional skills, vision, and tactical brilliance on the field. He played as an attacking midfielder or forward and was known for his elegance, dribbling ability, and goal-scoring prowess. He had a significant impact on the way football was played and revolutionized the game with his innovative and intelligent approach.
Johan Cruyff Quotes
1. “We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You’ll get it back in no time.”– Johan Cruyff.
2. “If I wanted you to understand, I would have explained it better.” – Johan Cruyff.
3. “If you play on possession, you don’t have to defend, because there’s only one ball.” – Johan Cruyff.
4. “I’m not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.” – Johan Cruyff.
5. “Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.”– Johan Cruyff.
6. “Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1,000 times … Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.” – Johan Cruyff.
7. “I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid … Innocent, you know. He just plays.” – Johan Cruyff.
8. “Footballers from the street are more important than trained coaches.” – Johan Cruyff.
9. “I’m ex-player, ex-technical director, ex-coach, ex-manager, ex-honorary president. A nice list that once again shows that everything comes to an end.” – Johan Cruyff.
10. “It is better to fail with your own vision than to fail with another man’s vision.” – Johan Cruyff.
11. “Players today can only shoot with their laces. I could shoot with the inside, laces, and outside of both feet. In other words, I was six times better than today’s players.” – Johan Cruyff.
12. “Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.” – Johan Cruyff.
13. “In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.” – Johan Cruyff.
14. “What is speed? See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.” – Johan Cruyff
15. “There are very few players who know what to do when they’re not marked.” – Johan Cruyff.
16. “Try to get a message to a player on the opposite wing during the match when fifty thousand people are singing…” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Five.
17. “Frank de Boer had gone on performing, and had twice won the national championship with the first team … For that reason, the Ajax board had a moral duty to ensure that he didn’t get drowned in bureaucracy … and was allowed to get on with his job.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter 11.
18. “Everything started in the street … here I learned to think about how to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. You see that the kerb isn’t actually an obstacle, but that you can turn it into a teammate for a one-two.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Nine.
19. “I was a bag of bones … and they took pity on me, which meant that even though I had no business being there, and wasn’t even in the youth team, I was playing with the Ajax team from a very early age.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter One.
20. “The most talented players almost always seemed to be really good guys.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Seven.
21. “The decline in street football of the kind I’d played as a kid meant that a young player was now working on his fundamental techniques about ten hours a week less, and over the course of even a few years that really makes a big difference.”- Johan Cruyff, Chapter 10.
22. “You can’t demand that a German must play football like a Dutchman. Or an Italian. You just can’t. So don’t look at them. Sort yourself out first, that has always been my philosophy.”- Johan Cruyff, Chapter 11.
23. “I’ll be interested to see them when Busquets is no longer in the squad. I think everyone will be shocked by the change it’ll bring about. I also think Busquets is going to become a good coach.”- Johan Cruyff, Chapter 12.
24. “I had to be critical, both of the group and of individual players. Perhaps that wasn’t clever at a time when everyone in our team was admired, but I felt professionally obliged to do it as the captain.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Two.
25. “English supporters are also hooked on their teams. It’s in their DNA. They’re always there, in good times and bad.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Seven.
26. “I’d never been one to put off until tomorrow what I could do today.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Two.
27. “It’s not by chance that people talk about something called Jordi syndrome.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Seven.
28. “Footballers who come from a poor family, play good football, get rich and go off the rails. Put yourself in their position … In fact, hardly any European clubs even look at that kind of issue. Because the worlds are too far apart.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Four.
29. “Few have been able to exact, both physically and mentally, such mesmeric control on a match from one penalty area to another.” – David Miller.
30. “The modern-day Barça started with him, he is the expression of our identity.” – Joan Laporta.
31. “Cruyff was the first player who understood that he was an artist, and the first who was able and willing to collectivise the art of sports.” – Hubert Smeets.
32. “As a player he turned football into an art form. Johan came along and revolutionised everything.” – Joan Laporta.
33. “When you saw Cruyff off the pitch he was like a thin boy. But on the pitch he was from another planet.” – Rinus Michels.
34. “I had an affinity with numbers. Numerology interests me. So, for example, I married Danny on the second day of the twelfth month, December. Two plus twelve produces the number on my back: number fourteen.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter One.
35. “To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent.” – Johan Cruyff.
36. “And I enjoyed the English fans, too. They’ve got real respect for someone who plays football well. Not just because of that unique talent, but also because he’s doing his best, 100 per cent.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Seven.
37. “I’m determined to go on evolving; that’s always been part of it. As a footballer and a trainer I was always an idealist.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Eight.
38. “I didn’t let anyone force anything down my throat.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Eight.
39. “If you’ve got someone who dribbles too much, you don’t stop him dribbling, instead you put him up against a big, physically strong opponent.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Nine.
40. “Someone can be a fantastic youth trainer, but a disastrous head coach. Or someone can succeed at a second-rate club, but fall through the ice right at the top.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Nine.
41. “It’s great to see everyone passing on the baton. First from me to Rijkaard and then from Frank to Pep … It is an ideology that has turned Barcelona into an institution. A club that symbolizes a unique philosophy in football.” – Johan Cruyff, Chapter Nine.
42. “Choose the best player for every position, and you’ll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1’s.” – Johan Cruyff.
43. “Without the ball, you can’t win.” – Johan Cruyff.
44. “The most difficult thing about an easy match is to make a weak opponent play bad football.” – Johan Cruyff.
45. “Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.” – Johan Cruyff.
46. “Don’t run so much. Football is a game you play with your brains.” – Johan Cruyff.
47. “You have got to shoot, otherwise you can’t score.” – Johan Cruyff.
48. “If you have the ball, you must make the field as big as possible.” – Johan Cruyff.
49. “Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.” – Johan Cruyff.
50. “Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.”– Johan Cruyff.