The essential figure for Johan Cruyff to change the history of Barça

Barcelona"For those of us who were lucky enough to know him, he changed our lives," says Marjolijn der Meer when you ask him about Johan Cruyff. Ten years ago, the Dutchman who changed Barça's history twice, once as a player and once as a coach, died. "It's beautiful when people who didn't get to know him, something we did, explain to us." as Johan marked them. "There were people who wanted to dress like him, play like him, or style their hair like him," recalls the woman who played a key role in Cruyff's ability to change the course of Barça. And of Catalonia, too. "Are we exaggerating when we say that Cruyff changed Catalonia? I don't think so. There was a terrible dictatorship then. It lasted many years. So many years of dictatorship leave their mark on people. It's hard to be brave. And he was brave." "He taught us not to be afraid," she asserts. She speaks in the first-person plural, "he taught us." Marjolijn, like Johan, is Dutch but also Catalan.

Ten years after Cruyff's death. The tributes continue, like the one that brought together a bunch of friends. His beloved Ajax, which has recently been taken over by a Catalan, Òscar García Junyent, whom Cruyff coached and who served as his assistant when he was the Catalan national team coach. A Cruyff disciple on the bench of the stadium that now bears the name of the manager who knew who he was back then. He was the most famous Dutchman of the moment. "We came from a magnificent 60s in which many young people felt free. I was one of them, and I had come to the Costa Brava to study languages ​​and work in a hotel. And while hitchhiking, I met the man who would become my husband, Armand Carabén," Van der Meer recalls.

Life is full of little coincidences. Carabén, A golden bachelor of the time, would meet that blonde Dutch woman and they would fall in love. They married soon after. Armand, a die-hard Barcelona fan, joined the club under Agustí Montal's leadership, and since the couple spoke Dutch, they played a key role in securing the signing of the best player of the moment. "The first time we met was in the office of Josep Lluís Vilaseca, a club director, on Girona Street. Johan had come with his father-in-law and Danny, his wife. And I had to go. We hit it off right away. I was pregnant then, and so was Danny. When they returned to Holland, they went back to Holland. Armand handled the negotiations," explains Marjolijn, a woman who drove the Ajax board crazy because she understood everything. And if they spoke in Catalan, the Dutch were completely lost.

"I think we need to understand the Franco regime. Even today, in some ways, it's clear that it was long and hard. Having people like Johan, who was a winner, who wasn't afraid, was key for many people. I remember the day the deal was finalized, when they arrived at the airport. They were very modern people, compared to how things are in Holland. They were the vibrant life we ​​had in the Netherlands," she explains, her voice filled with emotion, as she recalls those days when the families celebrated Sinterklaas, the Dutch Saint Nicholas festival, together at the Cruyff home on Cavallers Street in Pedralbes. And of course, the houses they eventually had in El Montanyà, sharing a garden, where the children of both families played together.

Flowers at the El Montanyà residence

Cruyff was the first player to win the Ballon d'Or three times (1971, 1973, and 1974). With Ajax Amsterdam, he won three consecutive European Cups. He couldn't win it with Barça as a player, but he did as manager in 1992 at Wembley. In November 2015, he announced he had lung cancer, and he passed away 10 years ago. "He was just like everyone else, Johan. He was very down-to-earth. Maybe not so much with the press, of course, he had to protect himself, but I remember him as someone who always had time for children or for the fans. He was the same off the field as on it, always determined. It's strange because people talk about him as a distant figure, but I remember that man who, when I was left behind, was always there for me. He wouldn't leave me alone," says Marjolijn, her voice filled with emotion, happy that friends will bring flowers to the house in El Muntanyà, as they do every March 24th. Cruyff, the man of the 5-0 victory in 1974, the father of the Dream Team, the icon turned brand, the creator of a style of play, was still a man of flesh and blood. A good friend to his people. One of those people who ensure that not only CruyffismHe is still alive in 2026. In a way, Johan Cruyff also lives on when people like Marjolijn remember him.