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.
Interpretation
Football has immense popularity but lacks development in foundational skills.
Johan Cruyff expresses his disappointment that while football is the most popular sport globally, it fails to emphasize proper development of players and the sport itself. He highlights that the potential knowledge about football is not being utilized effectively, which could lead to its growth and improved performance.
In practice
During a sports seminar discussing youth training programs.
Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.
May the sun never set on American baseball.
Golf is a game of coordination, rhythm, and grace; women have these to a high degree.
In these days of modern tennis a player is as strong as his weakest stroke.
In female sports, if you're gay, most likely your team knows it pretty quickly. It's very open and widely supported. For males, it's not that way at all. It's sad.
Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.
When I wear the national team shirt, its sole contact with my skin makes it stand on an end.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.