The year was 2009...
I was standing by the bus stop with my high school friend, who was an amateur football player at a local club. Once we realised we missed the bus my friend took a big relief and lighted his last cigarette.
"How are you managing," I asked him.
"Managing what?," he calmly replied.
"I mean how can you smoke and play as a wing back at the same time?." I emphasised.
He then inhaled a large volume of smoke and exhaled smoke rings as he lifted his head up and told me, "Have you heard of Johan Cruff?"
"Yeah what about him?"
Then he showed me the the picture below. I knew Johan was a legendary Ajax and Barcelona player but little did I know that he used to smoke as much as 20 ciggies per day. I was baffled and amazed at the same time.
View attachment 36872
When Cruyff passed away in 2016, the football world was in a great mourn. Although a few variations of his football mentality lives on today, Ajax needs to be resurrected from its ashes from the 70's and rise up to the top of the European football with totaalvoetbal, commonly known as total football.
The best way to put totaalvoetbal in Cruyff's words, totaalvoetbal is a football mentality in which do you not only have your best eleven on the pitch, but also eleven different talents whose collective mentality made Ajax thrive in the 70s.
Coming up: The squad, tactic and the season debut of totaalvoetbal...
[To be continued]
I was standing by the bus stop with my high school friend, who was an amateur football player at a local club. Once we realised we missed the bus my friend took a big relief and lighted his last cigarette.
"How are you managing," I asked him.
"Managing what?," he calmly replied.
"I mean how can you smoke and play as a wing back at the same time?." I emphasised.
He then inhaled a large volume of smoke and exhaled smoke rings as he lifted his head up and told me, "Have you heard of Johan Cruff?"
"Yeah what about him?"
Then he showed me the the picture below. I knew Johan was a legendary Ajax and Barcelona player but little did I know that he used to smoke as much as 20 ciggies per day. I was baffled and amazed at the same time.
View attachment 36872
When Cruyff passed away in 2016, the football world was in a great mourn. Although a few variations of his football mentality lives on today, Ajax needs to be resurrected from its ashes from the 70's and rise up to the top of the European football with totaalvoetbal, commonly known as total football.
The best way to put totaalvoetbal in Cruyff's words, totaalvoetbal is a football mentality in which do you not only have your best eleven on the pitch, but also eleven different talents whose collective mentality made Ajax thrive in the 70s.
Coming up: The squad, tactic and the season debut of totaalvoetbal...
[To be continued]