When I talk to Jordi Cruyff and my mother about this series of interviews on the 50th anniversary of Johan Cruyff's arrival in Barcelona for La Vanguardia, they immediately encourage me to check out Danny. I didn't even dare to propose it. I knew that, due to a desire for militant discretion, he has never granted any. But Johan died seven years ago and in his public image the most intimate side is often missed, the one that gives the character the authentic human dimension. We all know, and he was the first to admit it, that without Danny's strong personality Johan's career simply would not have been possible. When he agrees to the meeting, in the garden of his house, in El Montanyà, he does so in exchange for it being a three-way conversation: “I don't remember many things. Your mother yes. She puts the memory, I the cocktails and you the questions!
Let's start at the beginning: the first time you see Johan in your life...
Danny Cruyff: Oh, he was very young… He was a friend, where we came from, the disco… I met him through mutual friends. I remember that he had dyed my hair red and one day he said to me: "Danny, if you make it blonde again and put on a longer skirt, I'll come to you tomorrow night."
And and and!
DC: I couldn't believe it. He was like that...
Overdirect! How old were you then?
D.C: I got married at 19, Johan at 21. When we met, I must have been about 18... The next day, I got my skirt even shorter and, when he invited me to get into his car, I told him: “I just go in! in your car if you promise me that the next day you bring it clean!"
Ha ha ha! You bit each other...
D.C.: We always collide, from the first day… We got married on a Monday and on Tuesday we were playing Monopoly. Since he had to train, we couldn't go on a trip. I remember very well. I had my streets with hotels and houses, and Johan asked me to bring him a cola or a coffee. When I returned, I was missing two hotels. “What hotels?” Johan told me. “I had four hotels when I went to the kitchen!”. I picked up the Monopoly and threw it against the table. Johan couldn't lose. It was amazing…
Then, when you caught him with his traps, he would laugh...
DC: Yes! Ha ha! He always laughed… You can't imagine how much I miss him!
Johan was already winning leagues with Ajax... Being a player with such projection, at some point you should have talked about the possibility of going to play abroad...
D.C.: The first years no. But Johan was always very excited to come to Barça, and one day when we came on vacation, they showed us the Camp Nou...
Marjolijn Carabén: Yes, you were in Mallorca, because your cousin was married to a Mallorcan...
D.C.: And they had a hotel, near Palma. In S'Arenal, I think. When I was little, I went with my parents to Mallorca, every year, on vacation. And later, with Johan, too.
M.C.: So, taking advantage of the trip, they went through Barcelona…
D.C.: And we liked it a lot, from the first moment. I also think it was my father (Cor Coster, Johan's manager throughout his career), who when he saw that Johan's salary at Ajax was so low that he couldn't even buy a washing machine, said to him: “Hey, you should find a better place to live." And we chose Barcelona…
Why Barcelona and not, I don't know, London?
MC: There was also a precedent. Johan admired Faas Wilkes a lot, who had played for Valencia...
D.C.: Yes. Wilkes was one of the first Dutch players to play abroad…
And the first time you talk to Johan, mom, when is it?
M.C.: I met Johan in Josep Lluís Vilaseca's office, where Cor Coster and Johan were to meet your father (Armand Carabén), because Barça had already been very interested in signing Johan for some time. There was also Leo Stols, correspondent in Spain for the Dutch press. I think that the first time that Johan and Danny came from Mallorca they already did so with Leo Stols. It is when those photos were taken on the Ramblas. It must have been a year or two before. Your father told me “come with me to the meeting” (for being also Dutch). And that's how we met Johan. I was pregnant with you...
D.C.: And I from Jordi...
M.C.: No, no, you from Susila, but we still didn't know each other here...
D.C.: Ah, it was before… Because when I got here I was pregnant with Jordi… I was always pregnant!
And and and!
M.C.: The good thing is that Johan, after introducing us, told me: “Wow, you're pregnant! My wife too! When are you going to have it?" In October, I told him. “Ah, no, she later” (Susila was born in January 1972). It was the way to break the ice and we hit it off. But that meeting was a mere formality.
I understand that Cor Coster was testing the ground to see if there was real interest from Barça...
M.C.: Well, Barça also tested them... And the good thing is that your father spoke German with Coster, so for them it was a good approximation, because it no longer meant arriving in Spain without understanding a word and having to go to translators. We didn't need them...
More spontaneous, of course...
M.C.: And then, as is well known, foreign players could not be signed in Spain. But we kept in touch for a while. I hadn't met Danny yet, but his dad would sometimes call me, "How are things?" Or if there was any news, I would call him. And Cor, sometimes, would tell me “tell Johan” and I would call him. And I think we did talk to Danny on the phone. But of course, I didn't know who he was.
Danny, when does Johan tell you: "We're going to Barcelona?"
D.C.: To give you an example of what it was like, many years later (in 1979), when we had only moved into a new house, recently built, in Vinkeveen (Holland) for only three weeks, he calls me at eleven o'clock in the morning. morning: “Danny, I have signed a contract. We're going to the United States." Of course, we had lost all the money (victims of a scam in Spain) and we had to win again. But I had three dogs, a cat, three children. And I told him that very well, but when we were leaving. "This afternoon, at five!"
And and and!
DC: I don't remember. But surely a few years before, with Barça, the same thing happened. He was like that. I never told him no. He didn't tell me these things. Let's see, my husband's career, in my life, was always the most important thing. Today's women are different. But I went where he wanted to be. And he is already. Because I remember that Madrid was also interested in him, and Johan said: “No, no. I prefer to go to Barça”.
M.C.: We must not forget that Rinus Michels was here (Michels had been Cruyff's coach at Ajax), although I always had the feeling that Rinus's bet was more on Gerd Müller. I was not against it, of course. But I remember that when we went with your father to Holland to negotiate with Ajax and seriously, I was surprised that Rinus also showed up, when until then he had not rowed very well... And your father, Danny, did he ever travel to Madrid?
D.C.: No, I think he only heard offers over the phone.
M.C.: …because I do remember that when I talked about that possibility, Cor always made a bad face at me, as if there was no feeling…
D.C.: At this time, Spain, under Franco, had a very bad image. Because I had friends that I still have today, who told me: "How can you go to such a fascist country?" And Barcelona was not the same. I didn't have this accentuated image. This also influenced...
You arrived as a very young and modern couple…
DC: I didn't realize it. You arrive in a country where everything is different and you still don't speak the language... What I did realize, for example, was that you didn't see scantily clad girls on the covers of magazines... I was also very surprised by the women, especially in contraception issues. Many complained and I told them “hey, the pill exists”, and some had never even heard of it… That really surprised me. But overall, I loved it. I liked how people lived here. The idea of eating together, of sharing a table. In Holland you couldn't arrive ten minutes before dinner. Here yes. You cook for four and then eight show up. We liked the Catalan way of life. Since the first day. John too. That's why we ended up living here. Because then we went to Valencia, Los Angeles, Washington, we returned to Holland...
The curious thing is that, depending on which aspects, political, above all, the Netherlands was a much more open society...
D.C.: But they are much more closed on other things. Here, people were and still are more open. They give you hugs. In the Netherlands this does not exist.
M.C.: There was also another component, especially in the world of football... Dutch society was much more envious...
D.C.: Everything that was out of the ordinary…
M.C.: Yes, yes, they cut off your head!
D.C.: …and here, Johan was a star. In Holland, at least at that time, if you stood out a little bit above the rest...
M.C.: It really is when Johan dies that the Netherlands realizes that they have lost the most famous figure of the 20th century. So they do decorate the trams with photos of Johan… But he had to die to get this level of recognition. He was already famous there, of course he was. But here you felt more loved...
D.C.: When we landed, how they received us… Not even Johan knew that these people were there to welcome him. Do you remember when we arrived, Marjolijn? It was an amazing thing! People pushed me aside to gain access to Johan!
MC: They invaded the track. And your father (Armand) had to quickly put them in that Seat we had. To go see houses. He urged them to find one quickly, with the children and her pregnancy... We escaped from the journalists towards Castelldefels. Something unheard of for everyone. At that time there were not so many paparazzi. I also remember when Danny had Jordi, in Amsterdam, for a caesarean section, that the correspondent for La Vanguardia in Paris traveled to the Netherlands...
D.C: Jordi was born two weeks earlier because Michels asked us to, because Barça was playing against Real Madrid, and once he was born, Wil Michels (Rinus Michels' wife) called me five times: “We are 0-1”, “0 -2"…
Until 0-5 I was calling you...
D.C.: Yes, every time… But it was worth it. And when we returned they told us that Jordi was not an official name. But since we had the paper from Holland where he said his name was Johan Jordi, they had to accept it. And Johan, you know how he was, he got it.
It caught your attention that at the Camp Nou people dressed much more formally than at the pitches in Holland...
D.C.: Yes. I loved it. In Holland it was jeans and a T-shirt, and here in a suit and tie. It was much more formal… And the Camp Nou is my favorite field of all the fields where Johan has played. It pains me to see it under construction. It was my home for years. I almost never missed a game and I still go. I am very from Barça!
When you arrive, people see you as a couple with a certain attitude, also aesthetic...
M.C.: Danny was the one who carried the style of the couple.
D.C.: Did I dress so weird? Ha ha! I didn't even realize it. Of this I am sure. Do you remember when I went to that store? There were two young guys to help me. She was pregnant with Jordi. And I consulted a dictionary to translate what I was looking for. I told them: "I want a bed with two balls for the children"...
Ha ha ha!!! Did you mean cushions?
D.C.: No, drawers, under the bed, for the children. And the two boys started laughing. And I thought, "what a country, I don't speak the language, I make an effort and they laugh at me...!" The boy then told me what the balls were. What a shame I had! We had only been here six weeks and we were still putting together the floor...
Of course, it means experiencing a lot of things, being very young, in four years: three children, Johan's takeoff, a change of country...
D.C.: When Jordi was born, I went with the stroller to the Camp Nou. And when we were leaving, in the parking lot, there were at least 15 girls around his car waiting for him. This was hard for me...
Nowadays videos circulate on social networks of very young girls passing notes with their phone numbers to the players...
D.C.: Johan was lucky with this, because he had an incredible memory with phone numbers, and I never found one in his pockets… Ha ha ha!
And and and!!!
D.C.: But they offered him, of course. And at this time in Spain it was... I didn't expect it... In Holland yes, but not here... But yes.
Already I imagine it…
D.C.: I had to share it…
Of.
D.C.: But it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I have lived very intensely, thanks to Johan. From time to time I'm still bad, due to the fact that he is no longer there. But I am well aware that we had a spectacular life. And Johan only saw the positive side of things in life.
A lot is said here that when he arrived he changed the mentality not only of Barça, but of the country. Guardiola told me that this winning mentality was brought to us by Johan...
D.C.: At this time, they didn't show the games on TV. When Johan came home, he could never guess if he had won or lost. As a player, I tell you. And as a coach, when they lost and I regretted it, he told me "you'll see how they're going to play next Sunday... We're..." (Danny clenches his fist tightly). Always positive. Is incredible. When you live with someone like that, you realize it, of course. But when he's gone, he misses himself much more...
An almost pathological optimist...
D.C.: I don't remember a single time when he got mad at me. It's very weird. He got angry with people from the club, with the president, with the press, with everyone. At home, I never saw him in a bad mood. Never. Lose or win. My kids say so too. Until he died. It was amazing. He came to my house once. He was undergoing chemo at Teknon. And it took and took. Susila, who was always with him, would not pick up the phone and I was worried. They arrive and… I will never forget it… “Very good news!” She tells me. I thought they had fixed the problem with so much chemo. "They found a tumor on my head." And I, the truth, almost killed him. "Damn, but where is the good news?!". He tells me “well, they have found it. If they can't find it, they can't fix it. Now they're going to fix it." That was John.
M.C.: He left a tremendous mark on everyone.
All over the world, yes. That is why, fifty years after his arrival, we still remember him.
D.C.: I am super proud. When we lived in the US, we had a neighbor with Down syndrome. The children in the street did not play soccer with him. Johan brought him into the dining room at home and taught him to play... he cost me four lamps, you can imagine... He makes you realize what he was like, as a person. It wasn't that common for such a famous player to do this kind of thing. And he did it every day, I'm not talking about a week. At that time he already said that when he returned to Holland he would make a foundation for children with this condition. And maybe it sounds too emotional, but I'm very proud of this, because many footballers have done similar things afterwards...
