Friday 25th March 2016
ALL at Dumbarton FC are saddened to hear that Johan Cruyff, a true football legend, has passed away at the age of 68.
On hearing the news, Sons manager Stevie Aitken said: “It is a very sad day for the footballing world, to lose one of the true legends of the game.
“My thoughts are with Johan’s family at this difficult time.”
Cruyff’s connection with the Sons, much talked about in the media at the moment, came about in 1980.
Then manager Sean Fallon tried to tempt the Dutchman to sign for Dumbarton a ‘pay per game basis’.
It was then DFC chairman, Robert (Bob) A. Robertson, who helped the connection with Cruyff’s agent at the time, through a mutual relationship with a major engineering company.
Cruyff decided against following up his time starring for Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch national side with a role in Dumbarton’s future, moving instead to US team Washington Diplomats.
The story of the connection between one of the great legends of world football and Scotland’s original champions, at that time of the link playing in the second tier of Scottish football, has since become the stuff of legend.
Sons went on to make it the Premier Division in Scotland for season 1984/5 without the Dutch master.
When asked about the possible move to the Sons, Cruyff once commented : “I was tempted. Of course I was. Playing in Britain was something I had always wanted to do.
“But I thought I was too old to go to Scotland, where you know the weather will be difficult. When you’re old your muscles get stiff and moving to a cold country is asking for problems.”
The footballing world has indeed lost one of its greatest heroes.
Alan Findlay & Simon Barrow