Johan Cruyff would've been a Man City fan right now, says Jordi Cruyff

Johan Cruyff would've been a Man City fan right now, says Jordi Cruyff

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Former Manchester United player and son of legendary playmaker Johan Cruyff, Jordi Cruyff, has claimed that his father would have been a fan of Manchester City if he was alive now. The 3-time Champions League winner passed away in March at the age of 68 after losing his final battle to cancer.

At the book launch of the Dutch legend's autobiography 'Johan Cruyff: My Turn', Jordi, who spent four years at Old Trafford, said that his father would have been a fan of the style of football that Pep Guardiola has currently deployed at the Etihad.

"If he can still watch football he's probably be a big Manchester City fan," Jordi said at the event in London. "He always had a big admiration for English football. He loved that, so he really liked the opportunity when I was at United for four year," he said.

Guardiola paid homage to his former boss stating that he would not have been as successful as he was, had he not played under the legendary Dutchman.

"I was a lucky guy, I coached City, Bayern and Barca because I met him," Guardiola told journalists at the book launch.

"I thought I knew about football but when I met him, a whole new world opened in front of me.

"He taught us - not only me, but a generation of players - to understand the game, to understand why you took that decision," added Guardiola.

The former Barcelona manager, who is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the game currently, met Cruyff at Barcelona when he was just 16. Guardiola also praised his former boss's knowledge of the game many times saying that he made them aware of the many intricacies in the game of football that he has tried to adopt including the high-pressing game he is renowned for.

"Football is the most complicated game, it's very open and you have to take a lot of decisions. His impact on people was enormous. He wasn't sitting during training sessions, he was playing with us, but better than us. He would not tell us how to do things, he would do them. Every single training session was a masterclass.

"He was the most courageous manager I ever met. He believed in the 'efecto mariposa' (butterfly effect), that a good pass at the beginning could create a wonderful thing at the end," concluded the Spanish manager.

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