wept long-time Barcelona fan Jose Gilabert
Cortina, a retired printer who joined the
thousands of fans who came to the Camp Nou on
Saturday to pay tribute to the Barca legend.
Dutchman Cruyff, who first moved to Barcelona
from Ajax Amsterdam in 1973, died on Thursday
in his adopted city aged 68 after a five-month
battle with lung cancer.
"When he arrived as a player 43 years ago I came
to all the matches for the sheer entertainment he
provided," recalled the bespectacled 69-year-old.
"We were a team of losers, it was 14 years since
we'd won the Liga and he changed everything. You
would have thought that football had been
transformed into another sport," he recalled with
tears in his eyes like many of his generation who
mixed with the international crowd including
Spaniards, Chinese, Japanese and Moroccans who
came to the special condolence area opened by
the club at the Camp Nou.
Cruyff's debut in 1973 "was like a revelation,"
recalled 74-year-old retired taxi driver Fidel Diaz
Fernandez.
- Style and freedom -
The style and freedom with which the 1.80 metre
athlete with blue eyes and a Beatles haircut played
was a breath of fresh air during a time when
Spanish dictator Franco was still in power.
"Franco was still in power and you couldn't wear
long hair at that time without being taken for a
transvestite. Cruyff did it," said Fidel.
"He was always inventing something," recalled 70-
year-old composer Franck Charles, particularly of
Cruyff's time as a coach from 1988 to 1996. "I
remember a lovely phrase that he said to the
players before they took to the pitch: 'guys have
fun'. And they had fun!"
"Today it's Messi who resembles him the most.
Like Cruyff said there's no need to run a lot to
control the game and Messi doesn't run much."
Suddenly, Fidel, the former taxi driver with grey
hair, begins to laugh loudly as he recalls Cruyff's
legendary goal against Atletico Madrid in 1973
when the striker leapt into the air, twisting his
body to score as he faced away from goal.
And it amuses him now to see top officials from
Barcelona's eternal rivals Real Madrid - such as
president Florentino Perez - come to pay tribute
to the player who "changed the face of football",
43 years after Real's humiliating 0-5 home loss.
When Cruyff arrived at Barcelona the team were
second bottom in the league. But they won 17
games in a row to win their first La Liga title in 14
years.
The relationship between player, club and fans
became even stronger after he took over as head
coach in 1988.
In an eight-year spell in charge he won four
consecutive league titles, and Barcelona's first European Cup in 1992.
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