Eric Nicholls
sketches this profile of
'The
George Best of Holland'
Johan
Cruyff with Ajax c.1969
At first glance he
looks anything but a footballer. From his long hair, his
sleek, thigh-length jacket to his flair trousers,
coloured socks, casuals shoes, he gives the impression of
a Carnaby Street stylist in full discotheque dress
uniform.
It is the second
glance, that really counts with Johan Cruyff.
Within minutes of
meeting the idol of Holland, you realise how wrong he
would have been to bracket him with the hippies, the
ravers and tearaways of this modern permissive society.
So his hair is a few
inches longer than permitted by the short back and sides
mentality. But it is immaculately groomed and there is
the vitality in his eyes and a freshness in his face that
could never be associated with backstreet cafes or dive
clubs.
There maybe a touch to
exaggeration, a flamboyant, about his clothes, but Cruyff
is a showman, a professional entertainer who has captured
the attention, the imagination, of the kids as well as
the mums and dads of Holland.
His image is comparable
only with our own George Best and the Brazilian worship
of Pele. No wonder they call Cruyff 'the George Best
of Holland '.
The Ajax headquarters
at Middenweg in Amsterdam had all the paraphernalia of a
television spectacular. For Ajax were only a few days
back at from the heat of Madrid, beaten, but not
disgraced, in their European Cup final with AC Milan.
The engineers fussed
and checked, the interviewers waited and the producer
looked as though somebody was bound to ruin the whole
show.
But as we picked our
way between the cables and the scurrying technicians, in
search of a quiet spot, Cruyff was as ice cool and calm
as he is out there on the pitch.
He had seen it all
before. Many times in his young life he has faced the
cameras and the crowds, hostile and friendly. He knows he
is the centre of attraction, but he carries this
knowledge with an air of quiet assurance that betrays no
sign of conceit.
Some - a few - of his
admirers in Holland may feel that the Cruyff's halo is
slipping a little, that his image has become tarnished by
personal ambition, amounting almost to greed.
All because his name
has been freely linked with South American clubs, anxious
that Holland's star player should also become the
country's most expensive export outside diamonds.
Cruyff talked to me
openly and freely on the subject. My impression was not
of a big-headed twenty-two year old out to cash in on his
talent with total disregard for the club, or the country,
that had given him his stardom.
I found him to be a
sensible young man who knows what he wants for his club,
his country and for himself. A lad who realises that,
like all performers in the harsh, sometimes brutal, arena
of professional sport, he must start again in ten years
and build a new career, a new image.
"Of course, I
want to go," he told me. "This is not to say I
want to leave Ajax, or Holland. But I must think ahead to
a time when I can no longer play football. I must prepare
now for myself and my family."
Is not his pedestal
type rating with Ajax and Holland and his status symbol
fast sports car enough ?
Is he not satisfied
with the life that led to him marrying his beautiful
blonde wife Dany, last November, the daughter of a
wealthy Amsterdam jeweller, and the lovely home he has at
Vinkeveen, a few miles outside the city ?
"I'm very happy,
but I want to go for the money. Nothing else. I pay
SEVENTY per cent of my earnings in tax. This is
ridiculous! In South America I would pay only a very
small percentage of that.
"If I am seriously
injured playing for my country, there is no insurance
money for my wife. And if I miss a club match because of
illness or injury my wages drop to are very low level.
Every time I asked about this, I am told. 'Ah Cruyff
is shouting again. He is getting to big.' Then they
tell me the public don't want me to leave. I say all the
fans can give me one guilder each - that's about two
shillings and sixpence - and I'll stay.
"I want a better
contract so that I can put money away for the future. But
if the club refused to release me, I'll stay and do my
best for them."
If Cruyff succeeds in
staying at home on his own terms he would be striking a
similar blow for Dutch football that George Easham
achieved a in a 1963 in his legal battle against the
combined might of the Football Association, the Football
League, and Newcastle United.
The issues must not be
confused. What Eastham won for every paid soccer player,
Cruyff wants for the stars. He doesn't say this, but the
implication is obvious. And I believe this is something
Dutch soccer bosses must come to terms with.
Some say there are too
many players in Holland earning more than they are worth.
This may be so but the real trouble would appear to be
the relatively poor basic wage and the rich pickings
coming only from bonuses.
The most charitable way
of looking at this problem is to suggest that perhaps the
Dutch have become too accustomed to the second-rate. That
they cannot yet adjust star ratings and star contracts
for star players.
Players like
Cruyff, come only once in a decade. When they do they
are worth keeping.
There is no doubt that
Amsterdam-born Cruyff, who started with Ajax as a ten
year old and played under the managership of Vic
Buckingham before shooting to stardom as a Dutch
international and Holland's first professional four years
ago, has earned his money.
The heights he has
achieved with Ajax and with Holland have given him the
experience most twenty two-year-olds are still dreaming
of.
But there are no
thoughts of money in his mind when he talks of the
wonderful achievement of a Dutch side reaching the final
of Europe's premier club competition and of the road
Holland must take if she is to have a chance of living
with the world's best.
He told me: "In
these four-year as as a professional I have seen and
learnt four types of football. The English play fast and
high; the Dutch are skilful, but too soft; and the South
Europeans - the Spanish and the Italians - built up
slowly with the assured moves.
"To me,
the English way is best. People say they are dirty.
They are not, just hard. Certainly, they have one or
two dirty players, but so have we and we know who
they are. But we in Holland must develop a hard
approach to the game."
These thoughts should
make interesting reading for Dutch soccer leaders.
I give them and the
Ajax club another thought. Johan Cruyff has done more
than any other individual to make the rest of Europe sit
up and take notice of Dutch football.
It would be a tragedy
for the game in Holland, and one that could well kill the
progress they have made, if they lost Cruyff because they
weren't big enough to give him star treatment.
From "Charles
Buchan's Football Monthly" August 1969, pp 13-14.
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