page_title: Johan Cruyff
section_title: As an ideologue
hierarchical_section_title: Johan Cruyff / Influence and legacy / As an ideologue
caption_attribution_description: English: Joan Laporta, (born June 29, 1962 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) is the president of Futbol Club Barcelona since 2003. Español: Joan Laporta, (nacido en Barcelona el 29 de junio de 1962) es un abogado español y actual presidente del Fútbol Club Barcelona desde 2003.
context_page_description: Hendrik Johannes Cruijff OON was a Dutch professional football player and coach. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973, and 1974. Cruyff was a proponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history.
  In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dutch football rose from obscurity to become a powerhouse in the sport. Cruyff led the Netherlands to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament. At the 1974 finals, he executed a feint that subsequently was named after him, the "Cruyff Turn", a move widely replicated in the modern game. Wearing the number 14 jersey, he set a trend for wearing shirt numbers outside the usual starting line-up numbers of one to eleven. After finishing third in UEFA Euro 1976, Cruyff refused to play in the 1978 World Cup in protest of Argentine dictator Jorge Videla. At club level, Cruyff started his career at Ajax, where he won eight Eredivisie titles, three European Cups, and one Intercontinental Cup.
context_section_description: Cruyff established a very clear philosophy at Barcelona, he gave birth to that philosophy, he created Barça's DNA.
  — Xavi, May 2016
  The predominant style was that which has sustained Barcelona since the arrival of the Ajax coach Rinus Michels in 1971. He brought with him Total Football, a belief in possession football, rooted in a high offside line, pressing and the interchange of players on the field and, in 1973, the great Dutch forward Johan Cruyff. When Cruyff became Barcelona's manager in 1988, he reinforced this philosophy and, although he saw the version of the game practised by his successor as manager, Louis van Gaal, as overly mechanised, the starting point was the same. This was perhaps the greatest coaching seminar in history, and the philosophy it taught was that which had been flowing from Ajax to Barcelona, which believed the same things but had more money, for three decades: what we might perhaps term the Barçajax school.
  — Jonathan Wilson, December 2015
  More than merely a great player or great manager, Cruyff is also regarded as a brilliant thinker who founded and represented a distinctive school of thought in football and a style/way of playing that is predominant today. He is officially considered as the founding father of now famous Barça–Ajax school of football (also known as 'Barçajax school'), with a distinctive footballing philosophy and predominant style of play, that was born in Barcelona but has roots in the 1970s Dutch (Amsterdam) school of Total Football. Generally seen as a highly influential ideological figure in the football world, Cruyff was also a brilliant tactical innovator in history of the game. Writing in his weekly blog for Kicca.com, Spanish international midfielder Juan Mata, a graduate of Real Madrid's youth academy, hails Cruyff's overall footballing vision, "I consider him [Cruyff] the ideological father of the football; the one I try to play like and the one I look to learn from as a spectator whenever I watch a game. The intelligent use of the ball and the spaces, the importance of talent over the physical condition and the understanding of football as a team sport are concepts that I definitely endorse." His influence at Ajax and Barcelona went beyond his playing and managerial spells as he helped shape the footballing philosophy/identity of both clubs. La Masia, Barça's youth academy, was the brainchild of Cruyff. As a prominent graduate from the famed Ajax Youth Academy, he always believed using regularly young home-grown players in first-team squad. He established a unique model at La Masia where the youth players could grow up and have a better chance to be part of the senior team, as they would already be accustomed to the style of play. As former La Masia technical director Pep Segura said of Cruyff: "It is about creating one philosophy, one mentality, from the bottom of the club to the top. Cruyff is the one who started it all. He has been the club's most influential figure. We all have the ability to do certain things, but I would not have been able to build something from scratch like Cruyff did. I learned a lot of things from him. I cannot imagine the current Barcelona without Cruyff's work." The style of play Cruyff introduced at Barcelona came to be known as tiki-taka — characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels, and maintaining possession — which was adopted by UEFA Euro 2008-, 2010 World Cup- and Euro 2012-winning Spain national team. After decades of being known as the perennial underachievers on the international stage, Spain created one of the most dominant dynasties in international football history between 2008 and 2012. By winning Euro 2012, Spain became the first national team to win three straight world and continental championships and the first to win consecutive Euro titles. According to Xavi, the Barcelona and Spain midfielder at the heart of tiki-taka style of play, "Our model was imposed by [Johan] Cruyff; it's an Ajax model. It's all about rondos [piggy in the middle]. Rondo, rondo, rondo."
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caption: In many respects, former Barça president Joan Laporta is a fervent Cruyffista.[217]
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