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Cruijff played successively for Ajax, FC Barcelona, Los Angeles Aztecs , Washington Diplomats , Levante Union Deportiva and Feyenoord. As a player, Cruijff was known for his graceful play, fast reactions, mesmeric ball skills, speed, acceleration, the ability to change direction rapidly, and his tactical insights. He has been named as one of the best football players of his day, alongside Franz Beckenbauer, and Pelé. As a Dutch international he played 48 matches, in which he scored 33 goals.

The highlights of his football career as a player include winning the European Cup three times (1971 - 3, with Ajax), the Ballon d'Or (European Player of the Year) thrice (1971, 1973 - 4), and leading the Netherlands to a runners-up medal in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. In 1978 he refused to participate in the World Cup which was held in Argentina; the Netherlands emerged runners-up again that year.

Johan Cruijff has trained two football clubs after his active career as a player, Ajax and Barcelona. As a manager he has led Ajax to two league championships (1986 - 7) and Barça to four league titles (1991 - 4), as well as the European CupThe UEFA Champions League is an annual international inter-club football competition between Europe's most successful clubs, regarded as the most prestigious club trophy in the sport. History Originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or simply (1992).

Cruijff used to smoke 20 cigarettesA cigarette is a small paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 10cm in length and 10mm in diameter) of cured and shredded or cut tobacco leaves which is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder for the purpose of allowing inhalation of its smoke fro a day prior to undergoing double heart bypass surgery in 1991, after which he quit smoking forever and began chain-sucking Chupa ChupsChupa Chups is a Catalan lollipop company founded by Enric Bernat in 1958. In the early 1950s, Bernat went to north Spain to revive an apple jam factory. As he introduced later his idea of lollipops to the investors, they left. Bernat took over the compan lollipops instead. He also led the anti-smoking campaign developed by the Health Department of the Catalan Government.

In November 2003 Cruijff invoked legal proceedings against the publisher Tirion Uitgevers , over its photo book Johan Cruijff de Ajacied, which used photographs by Guus de Jong . Cruijff was working on another book, also using De Jong's photographs, and claimed unsuccessfully that Tirion's book violated his trademarkSee also: brand Bass Red Triangle, was the first trademark registered in Britain in 1876. A trademark ( Commonwealth English: trade mark is a distinctive name, phrase, symbol, design, picture, or style used by a business to identify itself and its product and portrait rights.

His son, Jordi Cruijff has played for teams such as FC Barcelona and Manchester United. Cruijff was his trainer at Barça.

During his career Cruijff also became a national phenomenon on account of his comments, some of which stood out in brilliance and pure logic. His form of speech was dubbed "Cruijffiaans" in the Netherlands. Some examples:

• "Italians can not beat us, but we can certainly lose against them" ("Italianen kunnen niet van ons winnen, maar we kunnen wel van ze verliezen.")
• "Without the ball, you can't win" ("Zonder de bal kun je niet winnen.")
• "Speed is often confused with insight. When I start running before the rest, I appear faster." ("Snelheid wordt vaak verward met inzicht. Als ik eerder ga lopen dan de rest, lijk ik sneller.")
• "Before I make a mistake, I DO NOT make that mistake" ("Voordat ik een fout maak, maak ik die fout niet.")
• "Every disadvantage has its advantage" ("Elk nadeel heeft z'n voordeel.")
• "To win you have to score one more goal than your opponent" ("Om te winnen moet je 1 goal meer scoren dan je tegenstander")
• and his most famous saying: "Chance is logical" ("Toeval is logisch.")