Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.
Interpretation
The essence of football lies in offensive strategy, and that's the approach I firmly believe in.
Johan Cruyff emphasizes the importance of an aggressive and offensive style of play in football, arguing that it is the best way to approach the game. His unwavering belief in offensive football reflects a larger philosophy about taking risks and seizing opportunities, suggesting that success in football, and perhaps in life, comes from a proactive, rather than reactive, stance.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sports team's locker room to motivate players before a big match.
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.
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.
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.
If you win through bad sportsmanship that's no real victory.
I came up in 1941 and I played against men who played in the 1930s. I stayed until 1963 playing against men who will be playing in the 1970s. So I think I can feel qualified to say that baseball really was a great game, and baseball is really a great game, and baseball will always be a great game.
I have not been short of invitations to other clubs and have been received more warmly by Everton than I have by Liverpool.
I'm just a ballplayer with one ambition, and that is to give all I've got to help my ball club win. I've never played any other way.
Everybody thinks this is a tough man's sport. This is not a tough man's sport. This is a thinking man's sport. A tough man is gonna get hurt real bad in this sport.
It's a wonderful feeling to be a bridge to the past and to unite generations. The sport of baseball does that, and I am just a part of it.
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