jOHAN cRUYFF

The 1974-75 season saw Johan Neeskens joining Barcelona, alongside Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels. Although they defeated Feyenoord in the early rounds of the European Cup, our very own Leeds United overcame them in the Semi-Final, before being beaten in turn by Bayern in the Final. Cruyff was at Barcelona for several more years, although for him there were no more major trophies to be won. Neeskens, however, went on to pick up a Cup-Winners' Cup medal for the Spanish club in 1979.
Cruyff became a much-travelled mercenary in his later days. I saw him playing as a guest for New York Cosmos, alongside Beckenbauer, against Chelsea in 1978. The turn he executed against Graham Wilkins that night was replayed many times by London Weekend Television over the next few years. He plied his trade in the North American Soccer league with the Los Angeles Aztecs, the Washington Diplomats and Spanish club Levante, before returning to Ajax for a couple of seasons, winning the Dutch Cup in 1983. As late as 1984, Cruyff won the Dutch Championship and Cup double, with, of all clubs, Feyenoord. He went on to become a hugely respected coach, putting Ajax back on the European map with a Cup Winners' Cup win in 1987, and then moving on to Barcelona, where he won the Spanish League in four consecutive seasons. He reached the peak of his coaching career (so far, anyway) by taking the famous Catalan club to European Cup success in 1992, with a team featuring Dutch superstar Ronald Koeman.