Edgar Davids speaks with CNN's Alex Thomas about Champions League clashes and his experience with racism in the sport.
Sometimes soccer can seem a very simple sport. The great Dutch coach Rinus Michels, the father of the Total Football school of the late sixties and early seventies and the man who took that style of soccer to Barcelona, believed that his side should always play one more defender than the other team had attackers. If the opponent played three up, Michels liked four back; if two up, then three back. To an extent, that has been the theoretical orthodoxy ever since.
Editor's note: This is Part 4 of a four-part imaginary tournament between 16 of the all-time greatest club teams in soccer history. Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be found here.
Editor's note: This is Part 3 of a four-part imaginary tournament between 16 of the all-time greatest club teams in soccer history. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here.
Editor's note: This is Part 1 of a four-part imaginary tournament between 16 of the all-time greatest club teams in soccer history. You can find Part 2 here.
Little Baerke van der Meij of Holland is so good at kicking soccer balls into his toy chest, a Dutch club signed him!
Baerke van der Meij may only be 18-months-old but already he is making a name for himself in the fiercely competitive world of soccer.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter could turn to former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger to help clean up soccer's world governing body.
Ask anybody who's done it, and they'll tell you that sustaining success is much harder than achieving it in the first place. The great Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann refused ever to spend longer than three years at a club because he felt that after that he could no longer motivate players. It may be that in the modern world of soccer in which money begets money, success is easier to sustain than previously, at least on a domestic level. On a European scale what that means is a cluster of perhaps eight or so super powers constantly battling for the Champions League, which is surely the main reason no side has successfully defended the title since the AC Milan of Arrigo Sacchi in 1990.
Here we go, then. Barcelona and Real's very own World Series starts now, the most exciting run of games in living memory or definitive and depressing proof that no one else in Spain matters -- great clubs, superb teams and talented players, relegated to an irrelevance, in the shadow of two footballing behemoths. For two weeks, at least.
Ajax's troubled season took a new turn on Wednesday when the four-time European champions' board of directors resigned following a dispute with Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff.
Formerly exiled Iranian coach aims for historic victory in the 2011 Asian Cup.
In the end, it was Photoshop that did them justice. All of them. It was Photoshop that made the picture complete and the message unequivocal.
The robust approach of the Netherlands side in the World Cup final has drawn a fierce rebuke from Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, who accused them of "dirty" play and adopting "anti-football" tactics.
Spain will add the World Cup to their European title by beating the Netherlands in Sunday's final, according to Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff.
Lionel Messi has been hailed as the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen following his extraordinary exploits for European champions Barcelona.
It was the ultimate expression of modern player power. In January, Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced he was "taking a break" from international football. The Barcelona forward will not play for the Swedish national team for the foreseeable future.
These lists are not mere compilations of all-time bests in their respective sports but all-time bests at quickening the pulse and evoking a visceral response from those fortunate enough to have witnessed their artistry.
English football chiefs have refused to become involved in a slanging match with Johan Cruyff after the Dutch legend launched a stinging attack over Premier League transfer dealings ahead of next week's Champions League final.
"The Spirit of..." team has been running an online poll asking viewers to choose who they think has been the most influential leader to have featured on the show over the course of the past twelve months.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Pep Guardiola. At 33, he had chosen to end his career in Qatar largely because, as he saw it, the modern game had no room for a guy like him.
Who do you feel has been the most inspirational leader featured on The Spirit Of in 2008?
There are more pounds around the middle and less hair up top these days as perhaps the most powerful yet graceful player ever produced in Europe slides toward his 46th birthday, his playing days long past and an oft-aborted coaching career in its fourth phase.
Five games, four points. That is the challenge facing Ajax after they were held to a goalless stalemate at leaders PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday.
Johan Cruyff is returning to Ajax, the club he propelled to three straight European Cup victories in the 1970s, to help improve the ailing team's performance.
When a star player at the peak of his powers moves to one of the world's biggest clubs, it is generally assumed that the buying club got the better half of the deal. Ambition triumphs over loyalty. But with Thierry Henry's transfer from Arsenal to Barcelona, it looks like the English club has good reason to be smiling.
European champions Barcelona say they are deadly serious about creating history by lifting the Club World Cup.
Center-forward Ismael Urzaiz struck twice as Primera Liga strugglers Athletic Bilbao hauled themselves out of the relegation zone on Sunday with a 4-2 victory at home to high-flying Recreativo Huelva.
Barcelona are aiming to go one better than Johan Cruyff's "dream team" of the early 1990s and win the Club World Cup in Japan next month.
Throughout the World Cup, CNN is compiling its own "Dream Team" of the greatest-ever players who have competed in the tournament.
Johan Cruyffupdated: Mon May 01 2006 08:51:00
Netherlands | Midfield
Cruyffupdated: Fri Apr 28 2006 09:34:00
Netherlands | Midfield
Cryuffupdated: Fri Apr 28 2006 08:54:00
Netherlands | Midfield
Rinus Michels, the Dutch coach who invented the concept of "total football," has died at the age of 77.
Ronaldinho's brilliant late strike to give Barcelona a 2-1 win over AC Milan has given the Catalan giants real hope that they can lift the Champions League for a second time.
Three-time European player of the year Marco van Basten has been named new coach of the Netherlands in succession to Dick Advocaat, who resigned after the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal.
Zinedine Zidane of France has been voted the best European footballer of the last 50 years by fans, UEFA said at a Golden Jubilee ceremony on Thursday.
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