Top 40 Johan Cruyff Quotes

It’s unbelievable. I changed the way Barcelona played. Now, Spain have had to change.

All these countries like Holland and Scotland, they create their own problems. They are always complaining, but they don’t solve anything. Don’t look at what you don’t have; look at what you can create.

It’s disappointing to see how football, the world’s No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.

When I was playing in the Ajax youth teams – when I was, say, 14, 15 – you started to get all those international youth tournaments. All those English teams came. Well, the English were much further than we were.

Football is not about suffering. It’s about enjoyment. Control the ball, be friendly with it, try to attack, try to score goals. Of course defending is part of it, but you can defend in a lot of ways.

Soccer is simple, but it is difficult to play simple.

If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, ‘Look, guys, it’s about more than just winning.’

Football should never be a worry. It should be exciting. When a child plays football outside, he doesn’t need to worry. Professionals should be the same.

My foundation now has some 120 football pitches laid out for children, a lot of them immigrants. We live in a multicultural society.

To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent.

If you take golf, you have a teacher for the drive, a teacher for the approach play, and a teacher for the putt. That’s three specialist coaches for one player. In football, one coach looks after 25 players.

Everybody could use the money, but you don’t play for it – you play with your heart – and that’s a big difference you see in Barcelona. Everybody wants to play there; everybody wants to enjoy themselves. It’s maybe a small percentage, but maybe it’s the difference.

Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.

Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running earlier than the others, I appear faster.

Footballers from the street are more important than trained coaches.

I don’t want to be a thief of my own wallet.

You have got to shoot, otherwise you can’t score.

Coaching courses are still much too theoretical, and this is what you see reflected in the basic technical skills of the average player. I even see things deteriorating.

There is no greater medal than to be acclaimed for your style.

The disabled people that do sport, they don’t think about what they don’t have but try to get better with what they do have. That is the same for me.

When I don’t have control of the ball, what do I do? I press to get it back. It’s a way of defending.

When I don’t have control of the ball, what do I do? I press to get it back. It’s a way of defending. But more important is that I like to have the ball. That’s why I believe in individual coaching sessions to prepare players properly.

Sometimes something’s got to happen before something is going to happen.

I always delegate. If someone is very good at something, whatever it is, he will be in charge.

Ajax was spending too much money; they were buying players that were too expensive. If you get 100 per cent, you can’t spend 120 per cent. It’s quite easy.

It’s like everything in football – and life. You need to look, you need to think, you need to move, you need to find space, you need to help others. It’s very simple in the end.

In the Premier League, the money is a problem, but I don’t really know how to control it.

Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.

I always use the basic quality of people to achieve what I want to achieve. That’s a different way of thinking. I always love that they do things. And when it goes wrong, well, try to correct it in one way or another.

Every disadvantage has its advantage.

For years, we have had many coaches in football, but there are no teachers anymore. And you see that in the play itself.

There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring. In the tactical area, I think I just have more than most other players.

Italians can not beat us, but we can certainly lose against them.

The most important part are the fans, that people going home are happy. It’s their time off, and you should give them something to enjoy.

How can you create a team and bring all these egos together? The main goal for Manchester United is for them to play well – and not have a player saying, ‘I play well; I scored two goals’. Because if I score two goals, but three goals go into our net, then we lose.

Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.

I look at Messi, and he makes me laugh. A beautiful footballer who is still like a kid. A world superstar, but still a kid. Innocent, you know. He just plays.

I learned my English from Keith Spurgeon. He had some small children, and I was young, too, and so we spoke the language together, and it was fantastic.

One trophy is good, but two are better. That way, when a hero wears his medals on his chest, at least his steps are level as he walks by.

My generation put in a lot more hours playing football after school than kids today. These days, all the football these kids play, they play at their clubs, so the clubs need to work seriously on the basic skills.