GOAL's Hall of Fame: Johan Cruyff - the Dutch prophet who revolutionised football

Cruyff was a true icon for the Netherlands and for football in general, and there are countless memorable moments from his career. The conductor-like gestures with which he often directed his team-mates on the pitch, the apparent and disarming simplicity with which he managed to make very difficult plays at high speed, driving defenders crazy, his remarkable mental strength, and that special shirt, No.14, which he wore for much of his career from October 1970 onwards and which was truly unusual for a footballer of his era.

There are three theories about his choice. The most credible, as told by his team-mate at the time, Arnold Muhren, is that Cruyff gave Muhren the No.9 because he couldn't find his own No.7, and then picked the No.14 at random from the basket of free shirts. Cruyff subsequently never abandoned it because it brought him luck.

Of the 402 goals he scored in 716 games for club and country, the most beautiful and spectacular was undoubtedly the one he scored for Barcelona on December 22, 1973, in a top-of-the-table clash against Atlético Madrid. The score was still 0-0 when Carles Rexach came down the right, cut inside, feinted to sit down an opponent and crossed towards the far post. The ball flew long and seemed unreachable for everyone except Cruyff, who, like a bolt of lightning, launched himself acrobatically towards the ball at a dizzying height, coordinated himself and, with a spectacular backheel, sent it into the net past the incredulous Miguel Reina.

The Dutchman's feat left everyone speechless, so much so that it was renamed 'the impossible goal' due to the extreme difficulty of its execution. "When there is a goal like that," commented Colchoneros coach Juan Carlos Lorenzo, "there's no discussion, just applause."

Cruyff scored another beautiful and iconic goal the following year with the Netherlands during the World Cup in West Germany in the quarter-final match against reigning champions Brazil. It was the 65th minute, and the Oranje were already leading 1-0 thanks to a goal by Johan Neeskens when Rob Resenbrink launched Ruud Krol down the wing. Once he reached the byline, Krol crossed into the centre, and Cruyff lunged at the ball like lightning to score with a flying right-foot volley. It sealed victory over the Selecao, who were beaten 2-0 and knocked out of the tournament.

For its extraordinary technical beauty, we cannot fail to mention the goal Cruyff scored on December 9, 1981, against Harleem. Aged 34, Cruyff had just returned to Ajax and showed everyone that his class was still intact when he recovered the ball in the attacking third, skipped past two opponents at speed and, with a delightful chip from outside the box, sent the ball gently into the far corner. A masterpiece.

Particularly skilled in the art of dribbling, Cruyff invented his own move at the 1974 World Cup : the Cruyff turn, a combination of a feint and a change of direction to surprise the opponent. The player performing the move feints a pass or a shot, but instead of kicking the ball, pushes it behind his standing leg with the inside of his foot before turning and sprinting in the opposite direction.

Again with the Netherlands in 1974, Cruyff was the protagonist of the most iconic action in the history of the World Cup: after the kick-off in the final against Germany, the Oranje kept the ball in play for over a minute, making 16 uninterrupted passes that ended with a penalty conceded by Uli Hoeness for a foul on Cruyff.

Then, on December 5, 1982, fans witnessed the famous two-touch penalty: Cruyff, back at Ajax, in a match against Helmond Sports, instead of kicking the ball directly into the goal from the penalty spot, passed it sideways to Jesper Olsen, who returned it to him to score.

These were masterpieces,plays by a football genius who was often misunderstood, so much so that Cruyff himself wrote in his posthumous autobiography, 'My Revolution': "Over the years, not everyone understood me. As a footballer, as a coach and even afterwards. But that's okay, even Rembrandt and Van Gogh weren't understood."

Born in Betondorp, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, Cruyff began playing on the streets. At the age of 10, he joined the Ajax football academy, where he was spotted by Jany Van der Veen, who became his first coach and taught him the fundamentals of the game, respect for the rules and the values of sport, such as, "playing football is easy, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is," and, "technique in football is not about being able to dribble a thousand times. Anyone can learn that with practice and then go and work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, at the right speed, to your team-mate's preferred foot."

At the age of 12, the death of his father, Manus, led to a turning point in Cruyff's life. The family found themselves in dire financial straits, meaning Johan abandoned his studies and decided that he would become a professional footballer. He asked Ajax to give his mother a job and the club, who believed in his talent, agreed to hire her as a cleaner.

Vic Buckingham, the English coach called in to lead the first team, recognised Cruyff's talent and took him under his wing, putting Cruyff through a tough physical training programme. Cruyff trained with four-kilo sandbags tucked into his tracksuit top before, at the age of 17, Buckingham gave him his debut with the first team on November 15, 1964. Cruyff scored in a 3-1 win over Groningen.

His tactical maturity developed the following year when Rinus Michels took over at Ajax and introduced the concept of space to the game. From there, total football was born. Michels made Cruyff work on his intensity and aerobic fitness while imposing a strict discipline on him. Cruyff reached double figures for goals, and continued to produce impressive numbers for eight seasons in a row, even when Stefan Kovacs took over from Michels as coach.

"Football basically consists of two things. The first: when you have the ball, you have to be able to pass it correctly. The second: when they pass it to you, you have to be able to control it," Cruyff said in one of his more famous quotes, echoing the concepts he learned at Ajax. "Creativity is not at odds with discipline."

With Ajax, Cruyff went on to dominate first Dutch football and then the European and world game. He won six league titles and six national cups, as well as one Eredivisie top scorer title, and played in four European Cup finals, winning three. He was twice awarded the Ballon d'Or in that same time period.

After not being handed the Ajax captaincy in in 1973, Cruyff decided to leave his boyhood club and joined Barcelona, where Michels had already taken over as manager. Cruyff immediately won La Liga, bringing the Blaugrana back to glory after a 14-year title drought. He enchanted with the national team at the 1974 World Cup and the 1976 European Championship, but failed to win either tournament. As partial consolation, he won his third Ballon d'Or in 1974 .

The next four seasons in Spain were less successful than the first, and after scoring 86 goals in 227 appearances for Barca, Cruyff announced his first retirement from football at the age of 31 after a failed kidnapping attempt.

Less than a year after stepping away from the game, Cruyff reconsidered and, through his father-in-law, chose the North American Soccer League (NASL) in which to make his comeback. He initially played a couple of friendlies with the New York Cosmos before then joining the Los Angeles Aztecs and subsequently the Washington Diplomats as he continued to showcase his footballing talent by delighting fans with spectacular goals. In 1979, he was named the best player in the North American Championship.

But America was too small for Cruyff and, after a brief spell at Levante, the 'Prophet of Goals' returned to Ajax in 1981 to win two more Eredivisie titles (bringing his total with Ajax to eight) and one Dutch Cup (five in total) while future champions such as Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard grew under his wing.

In 1983, after scoring a total of 269 goals in 367 games for Ajax, the club's policy of youth development led to Cruyff making a sensational transfer to rivals Feyenoord. Alongside a young Ruud Gullit, the legend enjoyed his swan song and achieved a historic double, winning the Dutch league and cup. He eventually hung up his boots for good at the age of 37 before proving himself a winner all over again as a coach, ensuring his legend would live on forever .

"In a way, I'm probably immortal," he said, looking back on his life. Seeing everything, as always, well in advance.