4 footballing terms which were named after players
Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport in the world, and therefore quite understandably, various footballing terms are also quite well-known. Every genuine football lover knows the meaning of dribbling, shooting, or passing. He/She also unerringly knows what is meant by a free-kick, a corner-kick, or a spot-kick. Those terms are used so frequently that we do not even bother to know where they originated from.
However, there are some other terms in football as well, moves which are named after football players. They are typically footballing moves or playing positions which were started or made famous by those footballers.
Here we take a look at 4 such nomenclatures.
#1 The Cruyff Turn
Johan Cruyff was a unique footballer in more ways than one, and not surprisingly, one of football’s most difficult maneuvers has been named after him.
Cruyff was the pioneer of “total football”, a style of football inherently dependent on short passes and off-the-ball positioning. Cruyff was the captain of the all-conquering Ajax Amsterdam side, which won the European Cup thrice in a row in the 1970s.
He was also captain of the Dutch national team at the 1974 World Cup, and was the best player in the tournament as his team finished runners-up. Cruyff demonstrated his turn while playing for both his club and country.
This is something he used while dribbling past defenders. When one or more opposition players tried to block his way when he was moving forward with the ball at his feet, Cruyff used to turn back to the opposite side very quickly with the ball still at his feet. His rapid turn used to flummox his markers, and they could only helplessly see Cruyff passing the ball to one of his teammates.
This is still possibly the best move to evade one’s markers with minimum effort. However, very few players have been able to replicate the Cruyff Turn on the football pitch as beautifully as the man himself since he retired.