When it comes to Dutch football, there are plenty of names that are revered by supporters. Names like Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Dennis Bergkamp are enough to make even the toughest of football fans go misty-eyed and think back to the country’s former glories, for example.
Whichever name you choose to mention, however, will pale into insignificance when compared to that of Johan Cruyff. Even those that don’t know much about the player will know of the piece of skill that he made famous, which was later named after him and became known to the world as the Cruyff Turn.
Who was Johan Cruyff?
Born in Amsterdam on the 25th of April 1947, Hendrik Johannes Cruijff became known the world over as Johan Cruyff. Having grown up just minutes away from Ajax’s stadium, it was all but inevitable that the youngster would join the club’s Academy, which he did as a ten-year-old.
This was in spite of the fact that the player himself actually preferred baseball and continued to play the sport until he was 15-years-old, at which point he eventually stopped at the urging of his coaches. What was baseball’s loss was very much football’s gain, however, with Cruyff’s Ajax debut coming on the 15th of November 1964.
@bartvhouten In memoriam Johan Cruyff 25-4-1947 – 24-3-2016 #Cruyff #voetbal #soccertiktok #ajax #barça #foryoupage❤️❤️ #foruyou #foru ♬ Inspirational – neozilla
That was just the start of his journey, with Cruyff going on to completely change the game thanks to his work helping Ajax create what became known as ‘Total Football’. During his time as a player for the Amsterdam club, Ajax won 18 major honours that included three consecutive European Cups, whilst Cruyff himself won the Ballon d’Or the same number of times.
He also helped to push the Netherlands side, which hadn’t qualified for a major tournament since 1938, taking them to the final of the 1974 World Cup. He then went on to be a manager, all but creating the modern version of Barcelona.
What was the Cruyff Turn?
It was during that World Cup that football supporters around the globe got to witness what would later become known as the ‘Cruyff Turn’. It was in the Netherlands’ group stage game against Sweden when the forward had the ball in an attacking position but was being closely guarded by Jan Olsson, the Swedish defender.
Cruyff feigned making a pass, then dragged the ball behind his standing leg and turned 180 degrees, accelerating away from the perplexed Olsson. It was, in many ways, a simple move. Yet for all of those watching it was a symbol of the ‘Total Football’ the Dutch became known for.
Olsson had already been caused all sorts of issues by Cruyff during the match, which is some going considering the game was only 22 minutes old when the Turn happened. It was the drop of the shoulder that did the right-back in, who moved to intercept the forward from going up field, little realising that he’d actually gone in the other direction entirely.
It became world famous in an instant, seared in the minds of everyone watching and performed countless times in the years that followed by young footballers desperate to imitate the best player in the world’s signature turn.
Was it Cruyff Who Invented It?
The fact that it is known as the Cruyff Turn would obviously suggest that it was Johan Cruyff that first performed it; after all, you wouldn’t name something after the person who did it the second time, would you? The problem is, such an evasive dribbling move will almost certainly have been done before Cruyff did it on the biggest stage of all.
There is some evidence, for example, that Brazilian superstar Pelé performed it during a match against Juventus in 1960. Even he may not have been the first to do it on a football pitch, but it isn’t always about who did it first but who did it best.
There are likely to be a number of reasons why it is that Cruyff is the one who is remembered for having done the Turn. The simple fact is that Pelé did it in a match whilst playing for Santos, a lesser-known Brazilian side, when playing against Juventus in a friendly match during the club’s European Tour.
Cruyff, on the other hand, did it during the World Cup, when millions of people were watching. It is also the case that the ‘Total Football’ that the Netherlands side were praised for during that football needed something of a standout moment, which the Turn certainly represented.