Few words can sum up the figure of Johan Cruyff, one of football’s most complex, paradoxical, controversial and three-dimensional figures. Few words can sum up the figure of Johan Cruyff, one of football’s most complex, paradoxical, controversial and three-dimensional figures. Cruyff went on to become the greatest and most iconic (from the twin Adidas stripes to his pioneering of a celebrity lifestyle and beyond) footballer of his generation. Cruyff won three Ballon d’Ors, ten domestic titles and three European Cups (but, ultimately, ruing the failure to win the 1974 World Cup) and re-defining Rinus Michels’ revolutionary total football philosophy. This is an exhaustive, colourful and meticulously-researched biography of one of the 20th Century sport’s most iconic figures.