On March 24, 2016 The Netherlands and the whole world has lost a legend, a creative genius, my childhood hero Johan Cruyff, legendary Dutch football player, nr. 14 who played for Ajax, Barcelona, New York Cosmos and LA Aztecs. Not only was Cruyff an incomparable football (soccer) player but he was human being helping kids around the world, notably in poor areas with his Cruyff Foundation and his Cruyff Courts.

The Cruyff foundation is based on the premises that sports and an active life is necessary to keep the children healthy and help them live together in a more and more difficult and complex world. Sport and exercise help children to develop, which is why no single child should be left out. By organizing projects for disabled children, building Cruyff Courts and equipping playgrounds and primary schools, the Cruyff Foundation contributes to a better and more enduring society. Read more and donate……

I decided to write the first blog on the revamped and redesigned 40parklane.com web-site in honor of this incredible man. There are so many reasons I want to highlight this extraordinary person, and there are so many great stories to tell about Johan Cruyff but to do so I would need many more pages and much more time. Plus, I would have to go up into the attic to try to find my treasure box with my Ajax pajama and my scrap book with endless news-paper and magazine clippings of the days Cruyff was a football (soccer) star in Holland (Ajax and the Dutch National team) and Barcelona (FC Barcelona).

Cruyff was the epitome of creativity, vision and leadership. Many people including myself have benefited greatly from his incomparable football, his vision and his quotes. 40ParkLane which is derived from Parklaan 40 in The Netherlands, where Hans van Putten grew up, was the basis for our vision, our creativity and our ethical and humanitarian heritage. We will strive to be an organization with vision for Web Design, Digital Marketing and Business Administration and hope to help those who need it the most.

Johan Cruyff’s legacy is vast and here are some of his legendary quotes:

1. Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.
2. There is only one ball, so you need to have it.
3. If I wanted you to understand it, I would have explained it better.
4. In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender.
5. What is speed? The sports press often confuses speed with insight. See, if I start running slightly earlier than someone else, I seem faster.
6. There’s only one moment in which you can arrive in time. If you’re not there, you’re either too early or too late.
7. Someone who has juggled the ball in the air during a game, after which four defenders of the opponent get the time to run back, that’s the player people think is great. I say he has to go to a circus.
8. Choose the best player for every position, and you’ll end up not with a strong XI, but with 11 strong 1’s.
9. I’m ex-player, ex-technical director, ex-coach, ex-manager, ex-honorary president. A nice list that once again shows that everything comes to an end.
10. Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.
11. Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate.
12. I always threw the ball in, because then if I got the ball back, I was the only player unmarked.
13. Players that aren’t true leaders but try to be, always bash other players after a mistake. True leaders on the pitch already assume others will make mistakes.
14. Before I make a mistake, I don’t make that mistake.
15. I’m not religious. In Spain all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works all matches must therefore end in a draw.
16. When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball 3 minutes on average … So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines whether you’re a good player or not.
17. Every professional golfer has a separate coach for his drives, for approaches, for putting. In football we have one coach for 15 players. This is absurd.
18. After you’ve won something, you’re no longer 100 percent, but 90 percent. It’s like a bottle of carbonated water where the cap is removed for a short while. Afterwards there’s a little less gas inside.
19. Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.
20. I find it terrible when talents are rejected based on computer stats. Based on the criteria at Ajax now I would have been rejected. When I was 15, I couldn’t kick a ball 15 meters with my left and maybe 20 with my right. My qualities technique and vision, are not detectable by a computer.
21. We must make sure their worst players get the ball the most. You’ll get it back in no time.
22. If you have the ball you must make the field as big as possible, and if you don’t have the ball you must make it as small as possible.
23. Surviving the first round is never my aim. Ideally, I’d be in one group with Brazil, Argentina and Germany. Then I’d have lost two rivals after the first round. That’s how I think. Idealistic.
24. Players today can only shoot with their laces. I could shoot with the inside, laces, and outside of both feet. In other words, I was six times better than today’s players.
25. There are very few players who know what to do when they’re not marked. So sometimes you tell a player: that attacker is very good, but don’t mark him.

The above quotes show his vision and intelligence and many of them apply to modern day life and business as well.

Johan, thank you for the joy, the fun and wisdom you have given us for so many years. RIP.