In the Foundation Johan Cruyff, Jordi Cruyff waiting to Jorge Valdano . He is eager to talk with the argentine, a speech that evokes his father had with the columnist of THE COUNTRY in July of 2000. “Do those boots were your father?”, asked Valdano. Jordi Cruyff, now also a columnist in this newspaper, it catches and see if they are broken inside. “Calzábamos the same, but he had a sobrehueso”. Valdano and Cruyff, always with the mentor of the Dream Team present, remember the past and think of future.
Jorge Valdano. 20 years Ago I interviewed your father in Santander and, as always, it was expected to the times. One of the things that he said to me was that there were too many outsiders in the world of football. Since then, the number of intruders has grown exponentially, as well as the industry. Your experience is more itinerant: you were in England, in Israel, and now in China. Do you have a vision of where we’re going?
Jordi Cruyff. My father had the ideas very clear and explained in their own way and with their vocabulary. Him, in respect to the intruders, who thought that the decisions futboleras have to be taken by people of football. Today, an entrepreneur who has succeeded in business, buying a computer, and it is believed that it is the same. And it is not. My father always said that what was important were not the executives, but the players and coaches. And that the decisions on this have to take people who know a locker room.
J. V. Now there is another type of intruder: the technology and big data. Before, to have authority you had to go to see the games. There came a time when laziness took us to see videos, instead of watching games. At present, go directly to the algorithms to analyze a player.
J. C. My father, for example, made decisions on the fly, depending on what is being smelled. I am convinced that there will be changed alignments in at the last moment. And, for example, he could have the workout plan written on a slip of paper and, on the way to the locker room to the field, in those 100 or 200 meters, they smelled what was in the template and he said to Charly [Rexach, his second]: “This is going to change.” And cleared everything on the fly. Today, doing so is impossible.
J. V. did Guardiola put method to the intuition gargantuan of your father?
J. C. I Think yes. Sometimes I look at some of the alignments of my father, and I think that I was crazy. What a brave! There is No explanation. I played with one end as Goikoetxea from left-back, a midfielder as Eusebius of right side, Koeman and Pep… it Was the least defensive in the world.
J. V. How is it done to be a son of him?
J. C. From a young age I understood that it was impossible to be compared. People like to think that the child can be better than the father, but I will not be deceived never. I realized that it was one of the 99% of the players. It was a comparison that could not win, neither I nor the majority. There was also a stage at the club which cost me and I preferred to have a peaceful growth, without those wars that always had because my father was not easy, especially for a manager.
J. V. Had friends and enemies.
J. C. Yes. And it was a battle in which I was involved, without that I really care about.
J. V. Are you optimistic about the football?
J. C. Not as much as my father. I remember, for example, that there was a player of Atletico Madrid itself well [MANOLO]. And he said, “Then don’t mark it. Don’t know what to do with the ball”. Things are very logical, but it seems crazy to put them in practice.
J. V. why did you say that you are less optimistic than your father?
J. C. When I faced a match only watched a part. The of how to attack, not cared so much to defend. I thought that, if his team had the ball, he would dictate what would happen in the match. But there are many computers that do not have a template to do it and then have to think a little about how to prevent them from doing harm. My father had the luck of being able to choose. And it was ready: Ajax and Barcelona are two clubs that could do what he wanted.
J. V. did you Enjoy today’s football and the invasion of technology?
J. C. Less, but there are many teams that play from behind and that you are brave. He also was the first to do this: in the Ajax put a goalkeeper that was better with the feet than with the hands and playing 40 yards from goal.
J. V. Your father used to say that football in Spain was quite federal, that she had too much autonomy and that this was an impediment to the selection, because they lived together too many styles and it was difficult to create something homogenous. The time showed that that background will helped the Spanish player is precisely to lose the fear of the different styles. And ended up adapting very well to globalization. Not only won a World cup, but they have also left Spain to go to other leagues where they are major players.
J. C. there Was a time in which the Spanish player is left in Spain. To go abroad you have to learn the language. As Dutch is easier, because the Netherlands is never an end station. The league Dutch is a platform while the Spanish is where you want to go, stay and finish. Spain has had to make this change, and Holland has always had coaches and players travelers. No one speaks Dutch. Then either you learn or you do not understand anyone. My father used to take him inside. He did not speak perfect any language, but she had her logic for all.
J. V. The revolution of Dutch football, which began with your father as a player, as he was an idea. In Spain we owe more to a generation of gamers: the complicity around Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Busquets… A good number of players of high level that ended up creating a school.
Encounter between Johan Cruyff and Jorge Valdano at the Hotel Muntanyá of Barcelona in July 2000. Carles Ribas
J. C. The Spanish player was good technically, but always spoke more of the character and the fury. Today, the Spanish player is that the more comfortable you feel with the ball in the world. With an advantage, it keeps the character. Have blended the two things. A Dutch team has to be in shape to win; one Spanish, on the other hand, when you have a bad day also brings results. That is character and ability for soccer.
J. V. I’m interested in your vision of the famous Super european, that will make it much more rich to the rich, but that we already know which will be the consequence.
J. C. My father was a romantic. And I think that you have much more interest some matches in a local league that some of the other Champions. I understand the idea of the big clubs because, when compared to any american sport, they observe that does not reach the level of business in the united States. But to break the traditional, which is what the people like, is very risky. At the moment you take that step you can’t go back. In England people prefer a derby City-United to do a Inter-United. The big teams want to have their presence secured, but the beauty of sport in general —and football— is to see that small teams might spill. The football also needs to cases like the Leicester [amazing champion of the Premier in 2016].
J. V. The money is winning by a landslide in the pulse with romanticism. Already in the Champions league are obliged to play the champion, Czech three heats.
J. C. Ajax, semifinalist, has had to play previous two.
J. V. But the fourth-ranked Spain or England is plant in the group stage.
J. C. There are leagues that are better than others.
J. V. The problem is that best means more rich. The five leagues more rich are the ones that have all of their representatives in the second round. And I wonder: when it is very rich in China, how footballing there will also be integrating it to the business?
J. C. it Is risky to lose the romance. You have to keep the balance. In the end, good teams are always going to classify. But it is more important to take care of the champion of Holland, Belgium or the Czech Republic, that the number four in Spain. It’s called the Champions League and do not always participate the champions.
J. V. football is unpredictable. How do you think that you will receive the fan common a change so huge? The passing of a national league, that makes a lot of illusion to beat him to the next village, to an international league in which we’re going to have to become accustomed to see great matches with great actors.
J. C. I don’t have it clear. Europe was made to join, but every time there are more people that wants to get out. I don’t know the general feeling. The stadiums in England and Germany are filled and that means they are happy with what they have.
J. V. do Not you think that the romanticism is a thing of the previous generations? The young people who have a loving relationship with the technology, they want to impact and who loves the big players and names star, are you going to start asking different things? I recall a few statements of Pablo Aimar in which he claimed that he belonged to the last generation that will see matches integers. It scared Me, but I thought it was real. I don’t know how you’re going to have to do the football to adapt.
J. C. I agree that the new generation wants information fast. Don’t want to see 90 minutes, but a clip of three with the best of the party’s actions. Everything changes. Many years ago we waited until the next day to read something of a great event. Today, the 20 seconds because you have 20 different sites where you can read about. There is No time to reflect. But it is in everything, not only in the sport. The technology generates this, or we go on or we fall behind. There is No brake.
J. V. I’ve Always said that in man there is a back room animal and that there is that contentarla. Must feed him with great emotions. And football serves to satisfy through a fiction, very emotional, that primitivism and savagery, which helps us desfoguemos on a site in the civilized world. But if civilizamos too much football will serve for another thing, but not for that.
J. C. is robotizando. At best, in 20 years, no referee. We laughed thinking that it is impossible, but anything can happen. I like collecting t-shirts from the 80’s. Sometimes, the lame, and I almost fall out of the hands. When it rained you couldn’t run with them. Today, they are plastic. I am part of a generation that has had to adapt to new developments, especially technology and information. But in a part of the heart has been the child that liked the stickers.
J. V. We are still waiting for you to come back to Spain…
J. C. the time Will come. Every time I have more desire to return. I left with 21 years of age and, except for the stage of the Alavés and the year of the Espanyol, I have always been outside. Twenty years…
J. V. do You feel Barcelona?
J. C. Yes, when I say home I think of Barcelona. I am 45 years old and in the Netherlands I have lived only five or six. My father, we dragged him all over the world. When I had to leave I saw a mountain in having to leave friends and change schools. In the end, I thank you because you have experience throughout the world and to know different places is the most rewarding there is.
J. V. , As we have returned home, it is time to finish the conversation. Waiting for your next decisions. Thank you for bringing us to your house.
J. C. And there he is [pointing to a photograph of his father and scoring a golazo of a spur to Atletico]… Always above us.
J. V. Always vigilant. Is profile, but look at us.
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