In Honor of Johan Cruyff, post your favorite image, video, story, quote, etc.

Johan Cruijff is one of the main reasons I fell in love with this football club. I became a fan of this club in around 98-99-00. We had then a bow legged maestro in Rivaldo along with some extremely talented players like Guardiola, Cocu, Kluivert, Enqrique. Xavi and Puyol were just at the brinks of becoming regular starters and boy was it a joy to watch them develop into the legends they then became for the club and for the sport of football.

I grew up in India and at the time EPL (as I presume it still is) was the king. United had just won the treble and almost everybody I knew was a United and England fan. It was a period when Barcelona was "struggling" and between then and Ronnies time we didnt win a single trophy. But even as I recall games of that period, I always recall the commentators referring to a style of play that was uniquely Barcelonas. There was a much repeated phrase "they will never change the way in which they play their football". That was what attracted me to the club. Winning and losing is a fact of football but style of play is something eternal. It takes a lot of courage to adopt a style of play and have unwavering dedication to it. All of that is Cruijffs doing. It takes a long term vision and tremendous self-confidence to pursue such a vision. Cruijff set in stone a path forward for the club. And I do not think anybody can argue that it hasnt paid the richest of dividends.

Cruijffism will evolve and the nuances will change as the game develops but we all owe a great deal of gratitude to Johan for the foundation that he set within the club. A foundation which is strong and allows for constant improvement.

A friend of mine described it best within the context of the French football team around 2006.

/r/Barca Thread