“My Turn: A Life of Total Football” by Johan Cruyff
Johan Cruyff is arguably one of the top 3 greatest footballers of all time, often ranked only behind Pelé and Maradona. As a player, he won 3 Ballon d’Or, won multiple trophies at Ajax and Barcelona, and reached the 1974 World Cup final with his country Netherlands.
But his legacy in football is arguably what he did after he became a manager, where he perfected Rinus Michels’ Total Football that became the DNA of Barcelona, and to some extend helped to create the modern football thanks to the generation of coaches that learned from him, such as Ernesto Valverde, Ronald Koeman, Luis Enrique, Frank Rijkaard, Xavi Hernandez, and of course Pep Guardiola.
In this memoir, he tells it all from his side of the story, the human story. How he grew to love his iconic shirt number 14, the kidnapping attempt on his family at Barcelona, THAT turn, why he finally stop smoking, why he didn’t join the Netherlands national team in 1978 World Cup, on retiring at 31, returning from retirement to play in the US and Ajax’s sworn enemy Feyenoord, on his footballer son Jordi Cruyff and the lesser known grandson who briefly played in Wigan Athletics, or that time when his Barcelona team bought an Ajax player a bit too expensive so that he can help Ajax with their financial difficulty.
Throughout the stories we’ll find an impressive list of name droppings, especially those players that played under him, from Marco Van Basten, to Dennis Bergkamp, Michael Laudrup, Andoni Zubizareta, Hristo Stoichkov, to Romario, and many more.
However, the majority of the book is unfortunately filled with ego that got in the way of a good story telling. In fact, the more I read on the more the book becomes less of a structured autobiography and more of a long list of rants about his tenure at both Ajax and Barcelona – which weren’t as smooth sailing as I previously thought -, his super star attitude in the Dutch national team, his bad decisions in life such as the questionable investments that bankrupted him, and even his very honest contempt towards Louis Van Gaal.
But knowing who he is and what he’s done to football, I think he’s got a pass for being obnoxious. A GOAT pass reserved only for the brilliant few.
And this brilliance is apparent when he stops moaning and starts talking about footballing tactics, which pretty much explains how modern football is now being played. Things such as how he thinks that a build up play should begin with a ball-playing goalkeeper. Or this line over the decision of putting 2 non-natural defenders at the heart of his defense at Barcelona: “Consider the wisdom of putting Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola, two attack-minded players with good scoring ability, at the centre of defence. Neither of them was a real defender, and yet it worked because defending is a matter of positioning, agility and ability to attack. If you have those three elements in your team, you don’t even need to defend.”
Moreover, his tactical brilliance is also shown in some rhetorical scenarios that he occasionally discuss. Like his intriguing opinion that Marco Van Basten could have become a world class right back. Or his fantasy squad consisting of Piet Keizer at left wing, Brazilian Garrincha at right wing, Bobby Charlton at left midfield, Alfredo Di Stéfano at right midfield, Ruud Krol at left back, Carlos Alberto at right back, with Franz Beckenbauer, Pep Guardiola, Diego Maradona and Pelé are also in the mix, including Lev Yashin at goalkeeper.
Specifically for Pelé and Maradona, he is convinced that they are a perfect match, “because Pelé’s enormous sense of responsibility connects nicely with Maradona’s individualism. I know for sure that during the match Pelé would watch over Diego as a kind of guide, because footballers have a perfect sense for that kind of thing, and Maradona would give something back to Pelé, which would allow him to be fully appreciated.”
All in all, I must admit that after years of wanting to read this book, I’m disappointed on how it turns out to be when I eventually read it. It is perhaps best to read with prior knowledge about Cruyff’s story or have read his biography by other writers. But in my opinion this book is still an unmissable one for any football fan, because it shows glimpses of the mind of an absolute footballing maestro, directly from the legend himself.
THE CHAOS THEORY 