Story highlights
Support grows for renaming Amsterdam Arena
Football pioneer Johan Cruyff died Thursday
The president of the the Dutch Football Association, Michael Van Praag, has told CNN that he would support renaming the Amsterdam Arena stadium in honor of soccer legend Johan Cruyff.
Cruyff, who died Thursday at the age of 68 after battling lung cancer, played for Ajax – which has called the Amsterdam Arena home since 1996 – Barcelona, Feyenoord and the Dutch national team as well as managing Ajax and Barcelona.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and a pioneer of the revolutionary “total football” style of play.
“What I find very important is that there is now a movement starting in Holland to rename the ‘Amsterdam Arena’ the ‘Johan Cruyff Arena,’” Van Praag told CNN’s Alex Thomas.
“That would be something I would really advocate … and I hope that the authorities and the shareholders of the stadium will agree on that because Johan has been very important for Dutch football.”
The Amsterdam Arena is co-owned by the local government and a number of other private shareholders.
Deputy mayor of Amsterdam, Eric Van den Burg told Dutch broadcaster RTL that renaming the stadium was something he was keen to see happen but would require the agreement of all stakeholders.
“I have discussed with the director of the Arena this evening and with the mayor of Amsterdam and the mayor and I agree that we should just go for it,” Van den Burg said late Thursday.
The Dutch national team will face France in a friendly match at the Amsterdam Arena on Friday.
A minute’s silence will be held before the game for the victims of this week’s terror attack in Brussels. The game will also be halted in the 14th minute in tribute to Cruyff, who wore the number 14 throughout his career.
‘Hyper-intelligent, very graceful’
As a player, Cruyff won three straight European Cups with Ajax between 1971 and 1973 and dazzled a global audience at the 1974 World Cup.
It was there he captained a swashbuckling Dutch side that lost in the final to host nation West Germany but is fondly remembered for its complex, intelligent and entertaining style of play of which Cruyff was the undoubted figurehead.
“He didn’t just typify (that style), he basically invented it … with the great coach Rinus Michels in the late (19)60s and early 70s,” said David Winner, author of the book Brilliant Orange which chronicles the history of Dutch football.
A “hyper-intelligent and very graceful” individual, Cruyff “was so uninterested in conforming and doing it in any other person’s way,” Winner added.
“He was just not interested in the conventional ideas of how you make a winning team.”
Cruyff’s strong views on how the game should be played also brought success as a manager.
As boss of Barcelona, he won four successive La Liga titles and led the Catalan giant to its first ever European Cup in 1992.
The star studded team Cruyff assembled is fondly remembered by Barcelona fans as the “Dream Team.”
Cruyff is also credited with laying the groundwork for the success of recent Barcelona sides and instilling the philosophy of building from within that has seen players such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets graduate from the club’s renowned La Masia academy.
Cruyff’s son, Jordi released a statement Friday, thanking well-wishers for their support.
“On behalf of my mother, sisters and the rest of the family I would like to say thank you for all the love, kind words and memories that have been shared with us, since yesterday but also over the past months,” Cruyff’s statement read.
“It has touched us deeply that Johan was such an inspiration to many of you. We would like to express our special thanks to all the doctors and medical staff who have supported us until the end.”
CNN’S Alex Thomas and Rosanne Roobeek contributed to this report.
