2nd only to Cruyff as an football idol personifying the ‘total football’ of Ajax & ‘that’ Netherlands side of 1974, Johan Neeskens has passed away at 73 years.
He was a defensive midfielder, but played in such a swashbuckling manner, he could taken for an attacker.
Along with his pal Johan Cruyff, he won 3 European Cups in the early 70s & then they both departed for Barcelona in 73/74 aiding the Catalans to their first league title in decades & halting the era of near monopoly of Franco’s beloved Real Madrid.
I was lucky enough to see him play a handful of times for Barcelona & later when the NY Cosmos played in the UK & he didn’t disappoint.
There’s plenty of footage on YouTube, have a look, he’s great.
RIP.
Johan Neeskens
by 12 Comments
Yep, he was cool. Didn’t realise he was ostensibly a defensive midfielder..
That Dutch team of the Holland were as wonderful to watch as they must have been
Difficult to play and really deserved more than successive WC runners up medals
Sad about this. I was just old enough to be into football in the early Seventies and even I could appreciate how great that Dutch side was. Only when I was older did I understand the ‘cool’ label but boy, were they ever. RIP
Never really took a World Cup, or any team in a World Cup, seriously after that Dutch side in Germany. The footballing equivalent of ‘Let It Be’.
They made a film and split up before it was released?
They eventually fell apart in a series of ego-driven recriminations and petty squabbles.
All will apparently be revealed in Peter Jackson’s painstakingly colourised and lip-synched eight-hour dissection of the van Der Kerkhof twins exchanging cross-words in the tunnel at half time
“Don’t walk away Renee..”
Yeah – Arie Haan, Ruud Krol, Johnny Rep, Rob Rensenbrink, the van der Kerkhof twins – that side was pure quality from top to bottom. Rinus Michels really took a revolutionary approach to the game, and what a treat his teams were to watch.
I was 7 during the 1974 World Cup. Prime age and in the absence of England, the Netherlands and West German teams figured high for me. The Germans because Gerd Müller was my favourite player and the Netherlands becasue they were just the best. Best kit. Best style of play. Best players. Best Players names even.
At an age when you would go out to the garage block to play football with your mates, recreating goals complete with commentary, the shout of Cruyff, Rep or Neeskens was the soundtrack to our games that summer.
Looking back on that team, we really didn’t get just how good they were. They really were special. But so was that kit. And the names are still evocative as hell.
I was speaking to a colleague about this today, and the names just tripped off the tongue. What players, and what style. Cruyff was on a different planet, but you could go out to the park and just about believe you might just be a Neeskens.
Very funny story in the Times obit recalling how JN’s refusal to slide Barcelona’s Club President some sheets of bog paper under the cubicle partition resulted in the club’s selling him
Great player, can’t ever forget that Ajax and Dutch side of ’74. They were the World Champions, they made football look so easy and graceful. I’m pretty sure Neeskens was involved in the run up to Cruyff’s goal vs Brazil; one of my favourite ever goals.
Mind you I wouldn’t be a sour Leeds United fan if I failed to mention that the two great Johans weren’t good enough to beat the mighty Leeds in 1975 in our run to win the EC Cup. So there.