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Birth of Johan Cruyff
Johan Cruyff was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands on April 25th 1947. His parents were Petronella Bernarda Draaijer and Hermanus Cornelis Cruijff. He had one sibling named Henry Cruijff. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johan-Cruyff -
The beginning of his Football career
Cruyff started his career of playing football when he was ten years old in the year 1957. He had joined the youth development squad of Amsterdam’s Ajax football club. As he became seventeen years old he made his debut for the senior team and he won six league titles, four national cups and three European Champion Club Cups. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johan-Cruyff -
The Big Transfer Move
In mid 1973, Barcelona had bought Johan Cruyff for approximately 2 million dollars in a world record transfer fee. At Barcelona He won his first La Liga title. He won the Ballon d’or. -
World Cup
Johan had gotten into the Netherlands team in 1974. In the 1974 World Cup tournament, the Dutch team, led by Cruyff including Johan Neeskens and Ruud Krol, put on a memorable display of total football. He had led the team to the final of the World Cup where the team faced off West Germany. Though West Germany had a lot of pressure on Netherlands, they had courage. Although they had lost the World Cup final, Johan had received the Golden Ball and had carried the Netherlands team to the finals. -
The Kidnap
During the 1978 World Cup something terrible happened. The Netherlands team didn’t have their star player (Johan). The team rang up his parents but they didn’t pick up. There were posters saying that Johan Cruyff and his family got kidnapped. Luckily, the kidnapper with Johan Cruyff was found by the police. Then Cruyff led the police to the other kidnapper’s place and soon Johan’s family was together again. -
Switching Clubs
From 1979 to 1980, Cruyff played with several American teams, including the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats, and he was named the North American Soccer League’s Most Valuable Player in 1979. He returned to Ajax in 1981, but two years later he joined rival team Feyenoord after a contract dispute. There he had won his ninth trophy and his fifth national cup -
Manager
After retiring as a player in 1984, Cruyff coached both Ajax and Barcelona to the European Cup. In 1992 he guided Barcelona and led them to both the European Champion Clubs Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, but then he was fired in 1996. -
Death
Cruyff died in 2015, when he was 68 years old. He was a heavy smoker until undergoing heart surgery in 1991, made his illness public in October 1990
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/24/johan-cruyff-dies-aged-68-holland-football-legend