Ajax Announce Amsterdam ArenA Will Be Renamed Johan Cruyff ArenA As of 2018/19

Ajax have announced that their Amsterdam ArenA home will officially be renamed the 'Johan Cruyff ArenA ' as of next season, in of honour the club and national icon who sadly passed away from lung cancer aged 68 in 2016.

A new stadium logo will be unveiled on 25th April, what would have been Cruyff's 71st birthday.

Amsterdam-born Cruyff joined Ajax at the age of 10 in 1957 and went on to make his first team debut seven years later. His first Eredivisie title followed in 1966, and he was part of the famed Ajax side that won three successive European Cups in the early 1970s.

Cruyff was also a star of the Dutch national side that took Total Football onto the global stage at the 1974 FIFA World Cup. That Oranje team is remembered as one of the greatest sides never to win the World Cup alongside Hungary in 1954 and Brazil in 1982.

STF/GettyImages

Cruyff left Ajax in 1973 after his third European title, heading to Barcelona, where his impact extended far beyond the pitch.

It was he who pushed for the club to set up the now world famous La Masia academy, using home-grown players as part of the team he guided to European Cup glory as manager in 1992.

Cruyff returned to Ajax in the early 1980s towards the end of his playing career and was hired as coach at the end of the decade after hanging up his boots.

(You may also be interested in 'Netflix & Skill: 7 Football Movies, Series & Documentaries to Watch This Year')