Barcelona pay tribute to Johan Cruyff with special kits for El Clasico
Johan Cruyff tributes have been rolling in since his passing a week and a half ago, and the Dutch legend's ex-club Barcelona joined in for Saturday's big match against Real Madrid.
Barcelona are wearing special, one-off kits for El Clasico with the message 'Gracies Johan' replacing the FIFA Club World Cup winners badge in the center of the shirts.
?? FC Barcelona's El Clásico jersey to commemorate Johan Cruyff: https://t.co/iPY2B6pu4G #ElClasico #GraciesJohan pic.twitter.com/54EsLVce59
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 2, 2016
And that's not all. The club handed out 90,000 cards for the capacity Camp Nou crowd to hold up during its pregame tribute, creating a massive, stadium-wide tifo.
There was also a minute of silence, and an emotional video was played on the big screen to recap his incredible career:
Cruyff, a three-time Ballon d'Or winner and considered by many as the greatest European footballer of all time, played five seasons for Barcelona in the 1970s, helping the club win its first La Liga title in 14 years in his very first season.
He brought even more success to the Catalans as a manager two decades later, assembling the famous "Dream Team" around Hristo Stoichkov, Romario, Michael Laudrup, Ronald Koeman and Pep Guardiola, and gifting the world his brilliant philosophy of 'Total Football," which would greatly influence the subsequent work of many managers, including Guardiola.
Cruyff coached Barcelona to four successive La Liga titles and their first European Cup in 1992, and on Saturday, the club found a great way to thank him for all he's done.
