Johan Neeskens may have spent much of his career in Johan Cruyff’s shadow but he was, without doubt, one of the finest Dutch footballers of all time. A strong, hardworking box-to-box midfielder, Neeskens proved the perfect foil to Cruyff at Ajax, and later joined him and coach Rinus Michels at Barcelona.
In the city as part of the ‘Holland Meets Bengaluru’ week at the Jude Felix Hockey Academy, a CSR sports event for the Embassy of the Netherlands, Neeskens spoke to the media on various subjects. Excerpts:
Holland’s failure to qualify for the World Cup: We had some really good players like (Robin) van Persie, (Dirk) Kuyt, (Wesley) Sneijder... they played together for eight years, and we entered the final in 2010 and did well in Brazil too. But these players are going to get older and you have to get youngsters in. We have very good under-17 and 19 sides but they still don’t have the quality to play at the highest level. This can happen to a lot of countries and we are facing that now.
Pep Guardiola’s Total Football: Guardiola was a player who grew up in Barcelona. He went through the hands of Cruyff in the academy and then was put in the first team. So he knew already the philosophy of Dutch football. You see how he likes to play. It is the same style that we (Holland) played in 1974 and at Ajax and Barcelona. It is beautiful to see attacking football. Spectators like to see a 4-3 rather than a 1-0. People are happy with the way Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid are playing now. Hopefully this continues and not the defending game.
Cruyff’s impact: Cruyff lived for football. I was fortunate to play with him for seven years. Everybody has qualities. In the sixties, Pele was the best player in the world. In the seventies, Cruyff was. After that you got Maradona. Now you have two, Ronaldo and Messi. So you have all these players but you cannot say one was the best of all time because football is changing.
Decline of the Eredivisie: We can’t pay the players the amount of money clubs in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and England are paying. We have to use players from the academy and if they are good, then the big clubs come and poach them. My advice to youth players would be don’t look for the money but game time. We cannot compete with the best clubs in Europe anymore, it’s impossible.
