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SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2016 SPORTS ‘He made us champions’ - Barcelona pays hommage to Cruyff BARCELONA: It was Johan Cruyff who most. Like Cruyff said there’s no need to “made us champions”, wept long-time run a lot to control the game and Messi Barcelona fan Jose Gilabert Cortina, a doesn’t run much.” retired printer who joined the thousands of Suddenly, Fidel, the former taxi driver fans who came to the Camp Nou on with grey hair, begins to laugh loudly as he Saturday to pay tribute to the Barca legend. recalls Cruyff’s legendary goal against Dutchman Cruyff, who first moved to Atletico Madrid in 1973 when the striker Barcelona from Ajax Amsterdam in 1973, leapt into the air, twisting his body to score died on Thursday in his adopted city aged as he faced away from goal. 68 after a five-month battle with lung can- And it amuses him now to see top offi- cer. “When he arrived as a player 43 years cials from Barcelona’s eternal rivals Real ago I came to all the matches for the sheer Madrid - such as president Florentino Perez entertainment he provided,” recalled the - come to pay tribute to the player who bespectacled 69-year-old. “changed the face of football”, 43 years “We were a team of losers, it was 14 after Real’s humiliating 0-5 home loss. years since we’d won the Liga and he When Cruyff arrived at Barcelona the changed everything. You would have team were second bottom in the league. thought that football had been trans- But they won 17 games in a row to win formed into another sport,” he recalled with their first La Liga title in 14 years.
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