As is our tradition, on Johan Cruyff’s (or Cruijff for the purists) birthday each year we take a moment to celebrate someone who revolutionized modern soccer, created one of its most famous moves, and had 14 rules that any soccer player would be smart to follow. For those of you that don’t know the Cruyff Turn is actually named after a famous Dutch Soccer Player, one that did a lot more for the game than this amazing turn. If you are unfamiliar with the move, Cruyff executed it for the first time in the 1974 World Cup in a match against Sweden. It is a move that kids all over the world continue to do today.

More importantly, Cruyff is widely seen as a revolutionary figure in the history of soccer specifically at Ajax, Barcelona, and in the Netherlands. The style of play Cruyff introduced at Barcelona later came to be known as tiki-taka, which capitalized on a lot of off ball movement, short passing and moving the ball around the opponent while maintaining possession. (His star burned bright and hot from April 25, 1947 to March 24, 2016). While it is a bit of a tough read, his book My Turn, is worth reading if you are a die hard fan.

So on his birthday, let’s take a look at the move and his 14 rules.

The 14 Rules of Johan Cruyff

These 14 rules are really quite simple and surely apply in the youth context today. If you do these 14 things, you are bound to have a great team environment and be an amazing teammate.

1. Teamplayer: to accomplish things, you have to do it together.
2. Responsibility: take care of things like they were your own.
3. Respect: respect one another.
4. Integration: involve others in your activities.
5. Initiative: dare to try something else.
6. Coaching: always help each other within a team.
7. Personality: be yourself.
8. Social involvement: crucial in sports, and even more so in life in general.
9. Technique: the basics.
10. Tactics: know what to do.
11. Development: sports develop body and soul.
12. Learn: try to learn something new every day.
13. Play together: an essential part of the game.
14. Creativity: the beauty of sports.

Let’s all take a moment to remember this soccer legend today and practice that Cruyff Turn at least once today!

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