Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy worshipped him for his style. Van Basten was the most elegant of strikers: tall, straightbacked, all sinew and little muscle, with long unprotected legs that would be his downfall
Born in 1964, the son of a semi-professional player, Van Basten made the perfect debut for Ajax. Aged 17, he came on as substitute for Johan Cruijff and scored. A year later he was playing for Holland. He was a nearly complete center-forward, who scored all sorts of different goals with both feet: dribbles, drives, and a variety of lobs.
His peak was brief but beautiful. In 1988, he wasn’ t meant to play in that summer’ s European Championship. Out injured almost all season, he had slipped to third in Holland’ s hierarchy of strikers. Cruijff, his mentor, counselled the Dutch Solution: walk out of the tournament.
Van Basten stayed, secretly smoking cigarettes in the Dutch camp, got into the team for the second game against England, and scored a hat-trick. In the semi-final, Holland beat the hosts West Germany thanks to Van