Number 14: The Total Footballer
An enigma, an artist, a football brand, an everlasting icon. To many, he is the ‘philosophy’, the father figure of modern football. Today, on his 73 rd birthday, let us honor the legacy of history’s most influential footballer, the greatest revolutionary of the most beautiful game: Hendrik Johannes Cruijff. Statistics alone would put him in the list of most successful players: 3 Ballon d’Or, 3 European Cup, 1 Intercontinental Cup, 10 league titles, 7 domestic cup titles. But it was not just his extraordinary dribbling, incredible acceleration, prolific goalscoring ability, exceptional passing (as if those weren’t enough!), it was his truly brilliant mind, stunning improvisation, absolutely unmatched vision, and most importantly, his tactics that truly set him apart. It was as though he was aware of everything that was happening and was about to happen on the pitch, before everyone else. He wasn’t just a player, he was the orchestra conductor; even when he was on the ball, h...