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CRUYFF

Hendrik Johannes Cruijff
NETHERLANDS · NED · FORWARD · #14
25 APR 1947 – 2016 · Ajax · Barcelona · Los Angeles Aztecs · Washington Diplomats · Levante · Feyenoord
El FlacoPythagoras in Boots
NETHERLANDS · #14

🌎 WORLD CUP RECORD

0
TITLES
7
MATCHES
3
GOALS
YEARHOSTAPPSGOALSRESULT
1974West Germany73 RUNNER-UP
█ ATTRIBUTES
PACE 91
SHOOTING 84
PASSING 92
DRIBBLING 95
DEFENDING 45
PHYSICAL 68

⚡ DEFINING MOMENTS

▲ 1974 · The Turn Against Sweden
In a goalless group match with Sweden, Cruyff dropped a shoulder, dragged the ball behind his standing leg and accelerated away, leaving Jan Olsson grasping at air. The move was named for him on the spot and has been taught in academies ever since.
▲ 1974 · Two Past Argentina
Cruyff scored twice in a 4–0 dismantling of Argentina in the second group phase, the first a chested finish on the run, conducting a Dutch side playing football few had seen before.
▲ 1974 · A Final Lost in a Minute
He won a penalty inside the opening minute of the final before a German player had touched the ball, but West Germany recovered to win 2–1. Cruyff took the Golden Ball as the tournament's finest player and a runners-up medal he never sought to discuss.

📜 CAREER TIMELINE

1966
Made his debut for the Netherlands, beginning an international career that would span eleven years.
1973
Left Ajax — with whom he had won three straight European Cups — for Barcelona in a world-record transfer.
1974
Captained the Netherlands to the World Cup final in West Germany and was named the tournament's best player.
1977
Played his final match for the Netherlands, retiring from international football before the next World Cup.
1978
Declined to play at the World Cup in Argentina; the Dutch reached the final again without him and again finished runners-up.
1988
Returned to Barcelona as manager, where his ideas laid the foundations of the club's modern identity.
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█ THE ALMANAC SPEAKS
PROF. INKSWORTH:

Cruyff gave the World Cup exactly one tournament, and one was nearly enough to win it — the 1974 Netherlands rewrote how the game could be played, and he was its conductor. The archive records a runners-up medal and the Golden Ball on the same line, which tells you most of the story: the best player at a World Cup he did not win. He stayed away in 1978, and the Dutch lost the final without him too, leaving the trophy as the one honour his football never quite collected.

  • His only World Cup yielded the Golden Ball as best player — and a runners-up medal, never a winner's.
  • The drag-back he performed against Sweden in 1974 is still called the Cruyff turn.
  • He refused to play at the 1978 World Cup; the Netherlands reached the final without him and lost again.
Ready.
Zone: Historical