Johan Cruyff: The man who split the football atom to make Barcelona invincible

‘¡0-5: Sensacional!’ screamed the headline on the front page of Barcelona sports paper El Mundo Deportivo. The day was Monday 18 February 1974 and it was the morning after a Johan Cruyff-inspired Barcelona had destroyed Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.

These days – and in part because of Cruyff’s legacy – such a scoreline is not so shocking. Barcelona beat Real Madrid 4-0 at the Bernabeu earlier in the season and back in 2009 Pep Guardiola took his Barça there and came away with a 6-2 victory. There have been similar Nou Camp hammerings. Jose Mourinho’s first Clasico ended 5-0 to Barcelona. It is easy to forget that before Cruyff signed Barcelona could only dream of parity and never imagined they would one day enjoy such dominance.

That 5-0 win in February 1974 came five months after Cruyff arrived in Spain. He was on his way to scoring 16 goals in his first season and helping Barcelona to their first La Liga title in 14 years.

It was probably the second time he had put one over on Madrid, the first being when he rebelled against his club Ajax’s attempts to sell him to the biggest club in Spain by insisting on a switch to Barcelona where he felt the presence of compatriot Rinus Michels made the club a better fit. With that decision alone he had won hearts and minds at his new club before he had even stepped foot inside the Camp Nou.

On page two of that now famous El Mundo Deportivo issue was a full-page advertisement of Cruyff for clothing label "Jim". As well as the club’s beacon he was also its first pin-up.

He scored 47 goals in 139 games for the team but only when he returned as coach in 1990 did the club really make the most of his genius. They won their first European Cup two years later at Wembley and have won it four times since with Frank Rijkaard, Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique staying true to the system and, more importantly, philosophy that he set in place.

‘Salid y disfrutad’ (go out and enjoy yourselves) he had told players ahead of that European Cup triumph over Sampdoria. They have been doing exactly that ever since. And the miracle they discovered is that far from this somewhat frivolous-sounding mission statement making them flaky and easy to beat, it has at times made them invincible.

Catalans are often the first to admit that they are pessimistic by nature. Cruyff showed them that Barcelona could rule the world. His Dream Team – named after the all-conquering United States basketball team that were lighting up the Barcelona Olympics when Barça were winning their first European Cup – were as formidable as they were fantastic to watch.

The same indomitable desire to win was pushed by Pep Guardiola as he won 14 trophies in four seasons from 2008, and by Leo Messi who has driven Barça on post-Pep to yet more glories.

Guardiola was Cruyff’s pick when Barcelona had to choose a new coach in 2008 after Rijkaard was moved on. Then president Joan Laporta trusted Cruyff’s judgement and picked the rookie B-team coach who had only previously coached in the third tier of Spanish football.

"Today we lost another legend," Messi said on his Instagram account. The Cruyff, Guardiola, Messi chain was beautifully evoked by L’Equipe with a page dedicated to the club’s treble won last season.

They put Guardiola’s number four shirt next to Messi’s number ten shirt next to Cruyff’s number 14 shirt. It was, said L’Equipe alongside the equation 14 = 4 + 10, the father, the son and the holy spirit. A sort of E=MC2 for the beautiful game and a fitting tribute to the man who split the football atom.

We will never forget you "Flaco", said Diego Maradona using Cruyff’s nickname "skinny" on Thursday. Real Madrid published a message of condolence along with a photograph of Cruyff alongside Alfredo Di Stefano. And Jorge Valdano said: "In football four men eat at the top table: Di Stefano, Maradona, Pele and Cruyff."

Just as those three had made Madrid, Argentina and Brazil invincible so Cruyff had done the same with Barcelona – something that back in 1973 would have seemed impossible, even to the club’s most optimistic fans.