As football mourns the death of Johan Cruyff today, it also celebrates his singular genius. His death also sheds some new significance on some recent events in football. Last month, Leo Messi and Luis Suarez shared a very divisive penalty in a 6-1 thrashing of Celta Vigo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xf83P79UGQ
The penalty at the time provoked a discussion across the football pundit classes about sportsmanship and Barcelona having contempt for their opponents. The likes of Eamon Dunphy and Roberto Carlos were scathing in their reaction to penalty. “None of the great players of the past would have ever dreamt of doing anything like that," Dunphy said, quite foolishly. Messi and Suarez were clearly inspired by a penalty shared with Ajax teammate Jesper Olsen in a 1982 game versus Helmond Sport.
For what it's worth, Cruyff himself was merely emulating the chicanery of Belgian Rik Coppens.
With the death of Cruyff today, the penalty takes on a new significance. It was a living tribute to Cruyff's genius and a tip of the hat to his legacy. Via Barcelona, you can trace a line from Cruyff to Messi - so much of what we consider beautiful about football runs through that line. In one audacious act, 2016 and 1982 were joined and bound by a philosophy forged by Cruyff and brought into vivid HD technicolour by Pep, Messi, et al.
Cruyff himself was impressed and entertained by the goal.
He added: "How is it possibly a lack of respect? Back then [when Cruyff scored his unusual penalty] nobody thought anything of the sort. It just doesn't make sense at all. It's football, it's entertaining, something different. And football is just that, entertainment; it's a game. And that's what Messi is about, having fun and entertaining people."
Around the time of the goal, it seemed that Cruyff was turning a corner in his battle with cancer.
Sadly, football has lost one of its titans today.
