EPHEMERIDE 'Total Football' turns 50: the mythical Ajax de Cruyff

Today 50 years ago Ajax Amsterdam won their first European Cup by defeating Panathinaikos (coached by Puskas) 2-0 at Wembley (London). The world discovered that day the Total Voetbal, Total Football practiced by that team whose football concept would dominate Europe, being the winner of the European Cup in 1971, 72 and 73. The ideologue and creator of that modern soccer machine was the Dutchman Rinus Michels, a former Ajax player who took over the team in 1965 and who dazzled with his theories and strategies.

Michels came to the Ajax bench in 1965. In 1969 he would lead the team to their first European Cup final, but his team of young talents, led by a very young Cruyff, lost 4-1 to veteran Milan.

Michels never understood how, the following year, Feyenoord would win the European Cup, becoming the first Dutch club to do so. The next three editions would be won by his Ajax. Michels, who already As a player, in 1946, he said the famous phrase “Attacking is the best way to defend”, used a 4-3-3 system in which players exchanged positions and had to be able to play in any position. The footballer had to know how to attack and defend. Total Soccer was born.

That Michels theory would profoundly mark Cruyff, who would always later emphasize the importance of collective play: “People should be able to play in all positions on the field. That is why it is so important that everyone listens during tactical conversations. far left cannot fall asleep when the coach talks about the right back “.

To carry out his theory of Total Soccer, Michels taught the young Ajax homegrown players, including Cruyff, Neeskens, Johnny Rep, Ruud Krol, Swartz, Keizer…

After winning the 1971 European Cup, Michels went to Barça. Stephan Kovacs would lift those of 1972 and 73, but Ajax continued to play football marked by the Michels seal. The one who played the Dutch national team in 1974, the Clockwork Orange, to reach the World Cup final. The football that still lasts today.

October 26, 1863 is considered the date of the birth of football, when the Football Association met for the first time at the Freemason’s Tabern, a pub in the London borough of Covent Garden. June 2, 1971 is unofficially considered the date on which modern football was born.

Marinus Jacobus Hendricus Michels was born in Amsterdam on February 9, 1928. His career as a footballer was spent almost entirely at Ajax, where he played from 1945 to 1958, but became notable as a coach.

He led Ajax (1965-71), Barcelona (1971-74), with whom he would win the League, King's Cup and the Fairs Cup, Cologne, Leverkusen and the Netherlands team in three different stages, playing the World Cup final of 1974 and would win the Eurocopa of 1988.

He was named FIFA's Coach of the 20th Century in 1991 and, in 2007, he was named best post-war soccer coach by 'The Times'.

Michels died in Aalst on March 3, 2005.

Hendrik Johannes Cruyff was born in Amsterdam on April 25, 1947. At the age of ten he entered the Ajax quarry. His mother worked as a cleaning staff at the club and convinced the coach to select Johan.

He played 12 seasons at Ajax, five at Barça, two at the Washington Diplomats and one at Los Angeles Aztecs, Levante (in Second) and Feyenoord, where he retired as a player.

Considered the best European player in history, he won multiple titles and received the Ballon d'Or three times (1971, 1973 and 1974). Later he had a successful career as a coach at Barça.

Johan Cruyff died in Barcelona on March 24, 2016.