# Help me find a short story about Johan Cruyff

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [June 5, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744 "2015-06-05T21:53:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744/1 "2015-06-05T21:53:36Z")

</div>

Possibly this is more of a Cafe Society question, but I’m taking a stab here because I thought soccer/football fans might be more likely to know the answer–

I read a short story some years ago, probably in either Harper’s or the New Yorker, about a Yugoslavian player on the great Ajax team, sort of his observations of Cruyff and what it was like to be a part of the team.

Anyone know?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744/2 "2015-06-05T22:33:17Z")

</div>

I can only help in that you are probably talking about Vasovic, as I think he was the only Yugoslav player in that Ajax team (well 1971 at least).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744/3 "2015-06-05T22:38:45Z")

</div>

Velibor Vasovic

> **[The official website for European football](https://www.uefa.com/errors/)**
>
> UEFA.com is the official site of UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, and the governing body of football in Europe. UEFA works to promote, protect and develop European football across its 55 member associations and organises some of the...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-a-short-story-about-johan-cruyff/721744/4 "2015-06-06T00:17:46Z")

</div>

Thank you! Found it. Somehow it didn’t occur to me the story might be about an actual player.

For anyone curious, the story is “Ajax Is All About Attack” by Jim Shepard, and was first published in Harper’s in 2003.