In August 2023, Barcelona celebrated a historic event - the 50th anniversary of the signing of Johan Cruyff, the "Godfather" of Barcelona. In that year, Spain was still under the rule of Fascism, and led the Dutch team to win 3 consecutive European Championships, and the Ballon d'Or winner, Johan Cruyff, joined the Spanish giants, CF Barcelona, which was a major turning point in the history of world soccer. This was a major turning point in the history of world soccer.
In contemporary Spanish society, which is permeated by a conservative atmosphere, this
transfer to another club (professional sports)
After struggling for so long, the Godfather changed the club's position in the history of mankind, and even initiated the renaissance of Catalan culture. And it all started with a 'roadside pickup'.
Just as I discovered Xavier Chen through the game of soccer, beautiful stories and epics sometimes start unexpectedly, including the one of Armand Caraben, a Catalan with a lot of schooling, two years away from becoming manager of the Barcelona club, driving around the outskirts of the city in the summer of 1968, until he saw a blonde woman on the side of the road. Until he saw a blonde woman on the side of the road...
Armand Caraben's father was a member of the Catalan soccer community. In those days, Spain was under the authoritarian leadership of General Franco, and Catalan culture and language were banned, so it was common for locals who could afford it to send their children abroad to study, including Armand Caraben, who attended a German school as a child (thanks to Franco's friendship with Hitler), went to Switzerland to study economic theory, and then went back to his home country to pursue a career in business, as well as a newspaper business. Like his ancestors, he is a Catalan living in the upper class. The woman who was looking for a hitchhiker on the side of the road that day was called Marjolijn Van der Meer, actually a Dutchwoman, who aimed to become a ballet dancer, and who was working and studying in the coastal region of Catalonia, and who often hitchhiked on her way back to the city to solve the problem. Hitchhiking with Armand Caraben changed not only their lives, but also the entire Barcelona team and the renaissance of Catalan culture.
Fast-forward temporarily to the end of July 1973, when the European Championships were won for the third consecutive year (
European crown
(predecessor), Gutiérrez had already made a name for himself, his skills, his thinking turned traditional soccer upside down, although it would be another year before mankind would certify the change (the Netherlands played Total football in 1974), yet the fact that four consecutive European Championships came from the Netherlands, a country whose reputation had not yet spread far and wide, said it all.
Expired cheques are a serious matter in shopping malls, and the Barcelona team is facing a second "cheque rolling crisis", as they have committed to signing Gruff, and have drawn up an agreement to get a priority negotiation on two occasions, the first time being in 1970, when the Spanish league banned foreigners and so couldn't make it happen, and this time, encountering the obstruction of the president of AJAX, the right of priority negotiation was about to expire until a long negotiation was held, with Armand Caraben already the manager, and Marjolijn Van der Meer hitching a ride to get married to them. The negotiation was led by Armand Caraben, who was already the manager, and Marjolijn Van der Meer, who was married after a hitchhiking encounter.
Johan Cruyff was born into a modest family, but he married a rich man's daughter, and his father-in-law, the Coster family, is involved in the diamond trade (and also sells luxury watches), and his father-in-law partners with his mother-in-law, who is an attorney, to take care of the business for him, which led to Cruyff becoming a pioneer in signing soccer players to various brand sponsorships, and even helped him leave AJAX.
After the creation of the European Union, and even more so after the establishment of the Bosman Clause in 1995, the labor rights of professional players came closer to what we know today, and (as it was later revealed) the president of AJAX vetoed it in a hard-line manner.
transfer to another club (professional sports)
The reason was not for the ballclub war chest, but the President's private promise to sell Sue Rufe to go to the
Real Madrid (soccer team)
The first thing that happened was that, thanks to the shopping mall's in-laws, Gouluve, who wanted to go to Barcelona, was finally able to make the trip as a result of a number of negotiations that involved Barcelona,
Real Madrid soccer team
AJAX (Netherlands)
soccer league
) as well as the players' camp for a total of 4 sides of the tug-of-war.
The wife's here.
transfer to another club (professional sports)
Armand Caraben, who brokered the deal, and his husband Armand Caraben, were busy in the tightest days of the off-season, before he forced Spain's
soccer league
With the opening up of the league system to foreigners (that's another interesting story), and the need to take care of the "boss", President Montal, the foreigners system was implemented.
Real Madrid (soccer team)
After buying Günter Netzer, the star midfielder of the West German team that won the European Championship, Barcelona's president, Mr. Montal, wanted to bring in the "German Bomber", Gerd Müller, in order to make a rivalry, but the president didn't have a deep understanding of the Dutch, and he didn't quite know why the manager of his family was obsessed with his Dutch wife's homegrown...
