How Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels revolutionized Dutch football forever

Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels utilised the Total Football system during the 1960s and 1970s to form a strong Ajax and Holland team, resulting in a new era of Dutch and European football. The footballing prosperity in Holland mirrored the cultural changes and resurrection that occurred after the destruction of Amsterdam during World War II.

To say that Holland had been heavily affected by World War II would be an understatement. Amsterdam had a high Jewish population prior to the war, and the Nazis used the city as a battering ground while linking up with the NSB, who were part of the Nationalist Socialist movement in the Netherlands.

This damage took a severe toll on the nation, which dedicated its resources to economic and social recovery in the 1950s. The Dutch national team was formed in 1954, 70 years after England, and by 1956, the Eredivisie was also formed.