Hendrik Johannes Cruyff, better known as Johan Cruyff or Cruyff, was born on April 25, 1947 in Amsterdam (Netherlands).
In his childhood Cruyff lived on the outskirts of Ajax stadium, his home was less than 5 minutes from the stadium and was always an Ajax fan.
Cruyff, at 10, entered the youth team of Ajax. At that time Ajax was a great club in the Netherlands but nothing compared to what it is now.
Cruyff lost his father when he was 12.
After many years he confessed the following:
My father died when I was qe and he was only 45. From that day on, I was afraid that the same thing would happen to me at his age. So when I had heart problems at the same age as him, I thought 'It was over!'. But medicine couldn't help my father at the time, but he managed to keep me alive today!
His father's death meant that he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to football as a tribute, as his father loved football and was the one that most encouraged Cruyff to try to join Ajax.
However, this led his mother to give up the store she owned, as she was no longer able to do and endure all by herself and did not want to distract Cruyff from his focus on football. She ended up going to work as a cleaning maid for Ajax.
Cruyff made his senior debut in 1964 at the age of 17.
In the 2nd season for Ajax, Cruyff was already leading the team that would eventually win the title of Dutch champion.
This season he has scored 25 goals in 23 games.
It was from this season that Ajax began to create relevance in the football world.
In the third season 1966/67, Cruyff scored 41 goals in 41 games, again charging his team to win the championship and the Dutch Cup.
In the 1967/68 season, everyone expected to see Cruyff become the Dutch champion again and he did not disappoint those expectations, having yet won the individual award for best player in the Dutch championship.
In the 1968/69 season, despite not winning the title of Dutch champion Cruyff, he continued to show all his talent, ending the season with 43 games, scoring 74 goals and making 23 assists.
This led him to again win the award for best player in the league.
In the 1969/1970 season, Cruyff led his team not only to win the Dutch championship but also the Dutch cup.
Finishing with 46 games, he scored 33 goals and made 34 assists.
This made him the first player to finish a season with more than 30 goals and more than 30 assists in a single season.
In the 1970/71 season, Cruyff won the Dutch Cup, scoring 6 goals in the final, and won the Champions League.
This season Cruyff has played 37 games, scored 27 goals and made 15 assists.
This led Cruyff to win for the third time the best player of the championship and to win his 1st Golden Ball.
The 1971/72 season was again a highly successful season winning the Dutch League, the Dutch Cup and the Champions League having scored the 2 goals of victory.
This season he finished with 45 games, 33 goals and 10 assists.
In the 1972/73 season Cruyff won again the Dutch championship and the League of Champions for the third time. Making Ajax a special club in history, as only two other clubs had achieved this feat.
This meant that Cruyff won his 4th prize for best Dutch player and the 2nd Golden Ball.
At this point, several coaches began to identify a different style of play that Cruyff practiced and called Total Football.
During the years he played for Ajax Cruyff he made 325 games and scored 273 goals.
In the 1973/74 season Cruyff was talked about worldwide due to the controversial signing by FC Barceloona and Ajax was also in negotiations with Real Madrid. At the time, this was the most expensive transfer in football history.
He was welcomed in Barcelona as an idol, as supporters saw him as hoping to return to the long journey without titles, as Barcelona had not won the championship for 14 years.
In his first season Cruyff made the difference.
In the opening game he scored two goals and managed to get Barcelona to become La Liga champion.
This season Cruyff played 38 games, scored 24 goals and made 4 assists.
His stay in Barcelona until 1978 did not give him many titles, as in addition to the 1974 La Liga title he only won the King's Cup in 1978.
Last season Cruyff won his 3rd Golden Ball becoming the first player to win this individual prize 3 times.
Cruyff decided to end his playing career at the end of this season.
In these 4 seasons Cruyff has played 227 games, scored 85 goals and made 15 assists.
Cruyff made 702 appearances in club service, scored 402 goals and made 108 assists.
With the national team, he played 48 games and scored 33 goals.