Ajax won three straight European Cups from 1971 through 1973, and each time Cruijff was voted European Player of the Year. But he was an opinionated and difficult man, and quarrels punctuated his career. In 1973, after his teammates voted him out of Ajax’ s captaincy, he fled to Barcelona. The club swiftly won its first Spanish title in fourteen years.
Cruijff is best remembered as the guide of Holland’ s great team at the World Cup of 1974, though sadly the lost final against West Germany was his worst match of the tournament. In 1978, aged only 31, he decided for family reasons to skip the World Cup in Argentina. He retired from soccer that year, but then discovered that he had lost his money in terrible investments, and had to return. He played five more brilliant years for the Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Ajax, and finally Ajax’ s great rival Feyenoord Rotterdam, before retiring at age 37 to become an equally brilliant-- and quarrelsome – coach.