Ajax Quotes
When it was clear that I was leaving Ajax [in 1973], I was sent all kinds of poisonous messages and lots more of that kind of nonsense. But the worst thing for me was that Ajax gave my mother, who had always done her best for the club, an inferior seat in the stadium. Behind a pole. That absolutely crushed me.
Johan Cruyff
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Alexander Pope
Here with Ajax lies my heart,
a club fascinating, always unique.
By many named after sons of gods,
for me the origin of football icons.
My memories return to De Meer,
there too was found a special atmosphere.
Now I go after my feelings,
and technically enter the Arena.
In my life phase this is a new chance,
and my childhood love gets an extra impulse.
And that's why I state with full conviction,
today the circle is really complete.
Louis van Gaal
Cruyff the player was gloriously impudent, a slight and graceful genius who proved that brain could outmanoeuvre brawn. Watching his Netherlands dart and thrust their way around Uruguay or Argentina in 1974, or seeing his Ajax outwit Juventus in the European Cup final in 1973, was to see a devastating puppet-master toying with lumbering opponents. Cruyff the coach, Cruyff the manager, was able to retain that sense of the joy of the game, the importance of beauty and, what's harder, to convey that sense to his players. There has never been such a great player who was also such a great manager. In that he stands utterly unique.
Johan Cruyff
