He died the famous Dutch football player and coach Johan Cruyff – RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, March 24 – R-Sport. The legendary Dutch football player and coach Johan Cruyff, died in Barcelona at the age of 68 years, information about this is available on its official website.

Last fall, the three-time winner of the “Golden Ball” diagnosed, “lung cancer” after which he started treatment. Cruyff actively smoked up to 44 years and quit the habit only after it underwent heart surgery.

© AP Photo / Claude Paris

Johan Cruyff three times He became the owner of “Golden ball” – the best football player of the year award. He played for the Dutch club “Ajax” and “Feyenoord”, the Spanish “Barcelona” and “Levante”, the US “Los Angeles” and “Washington”. As a coach he led the “Barcelona”, “Ajax” and the national team of Catalonia. For the national team of the Netherlands Cruyff scored 33 goals in 48 matches, wins bronze at European Championships and the 1976 vice-champion of the world – 1974.

Cruyff as part of the Dutch national team in 1974 became the personification of the sample “total football”. It is the third consecutive year, in 1971, 1972 and 1973, won with “Ajax” European Cup. The Spanish “Barcelona” under his leadership for four consecutive years won the championship in Spain (1991-1994), won the European Cup (1992) and Cup Winners’ Cup (1989).

The first vice-president of the Russian Football Union Nikita Simonyan called Cruyff one of the first “cohort of the great players that we worship: Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Di Stefano, Puskas, Eusebio”

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