It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.
Interpretation
Football has immense popularity but lacks development in foundational skills.
Johan Cruyff expresses his disappointment that while football is the most popular sport globally, it fails to emphasize proper development of players and the sport itself. He highlights that the potential knowledge about football is not being utilized effectively, which could lead to its growth and improved performance.
In practice
During a sports seminar discussing youth training programs.
Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.
Football is not about suffering. It's about enjoyment. Control the ball, be friendly with it, try to attack, try to score goals. Of course defending is part of it, but you can defend in a lot of ways.
If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, 'Look, guys, it's about more than just winning.'
If you take golf, you have a teacher for the drive, a teacher for the approach play, and a teacher for the putt. That's three specialist coaches for one player. In football, one coach looks after 25 players.
The most important part are the fans, that people going home are happy. It's their time off, and you should give them something to enjoy.
Football is about having the best offensive play possible. I always like to play offensive football, and nobody will convince me otherwise.
Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead.
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
I'm just a ballplayer with one ambition, and that is to give all I've got to help my ball club win. I've never played any other way.
You train all year for the physical aspect of cycling, but you can't plan for what comes next. You're still the same person. External perceptions might change, but inside, you're the same.
The only football players in my time were fellows who really loved to play football. They were not in it for the money. There wasn't much money there. They would have played football for nothing.
They invented the All-Star game for Willie Mays.
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