Where Can Johan Cruyff's Fingerprints Be Seen at FC Barcelona?

Football lost on Thursday.

Johan Cruyff—one of the game's greatest players and managerial minds—lost his battle with cancer (as detailed by BBC Sport) leaving behind a massive legacy, carved out after 68 years, which is sure to remain for centuries.

An unrivalled technician and tactician, spawned from Jack Reynolds and Rinus Michels' revolutionary concept of "Total Football," Cruyff (both domestically and internationally) was the crown jewel from the Dutch school of footballing thought.

Synonymous with the Netherlands' national football team and Ajax, outside of his birth country, the place Cruyff developed most was FC Barcelona.

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Spending five seasons in Catalonia as a player, the Amsterdam-born attacking threat scored 61 goals in 184 appearances and won two trophies as a member of Barca's mid-1970s era.

Leaving the Nou Camp in 1978, Cruyff went to the United States, playing one season for Levante in-between, then returned to Holland (playing for Ajax and Feyenoord), before retiring in 1984.

The next year, he began his managerial career with Ajax. Spending three seasons (1985-1988) with the club that brought him worldwide recognition during his playing career, Cruyff laid the foundation for Ajax's eventual 1995 UEFA Champions League-winning side, but he left to manage Barcelona in 1988. Made 28 years ago, his decision continues to colour European and international football.

At Barca, the Dutchman was able to impart tenets of Total Football into the Spanish game.

Starting with player recruitment, Cruyff quickly made the Catalan giants La Liga's (and possibly Europe's) best side; they won the 1989/90 Copa del Rey, the 1991/92 European Cup and four straight Spanish crowns from 1990/91 through 1993/94.

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"

"Quality without results is pointless.
Results without quality is boring."

RIP Johan Cryuff

— Harlee Dean (@OfficialHDean) March 24, 2016"

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Cruyff's contribution off the pitch, though, is arguably greater than the trophies he helped deliver.

Conceptualising La Masia in 1979 (nine years before managing Barcelona), the youth academy has proved to be a conveyor belt for some of the world's best talent. Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernandez, Thiago Motta, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique, Lionel Messi and countless others are youth graduates Cruyff never managed, but on whom his influence is visibly apparent.

Pep Guardiola was made at La Masia and played under the Dutch manager for his first six professional seasons. Handing the then-19-year-old his senior debut, Cruyff could not have known Guardiola would transform into his greatest disciple. The Spaniard's take on Total Football and Spain's one-touch ethos, in conjunction with the talent produced from Barcelona's famed academy, proved the next evolution in attacking football.

Expanding further, in the early 1990s (during Cruyff's tenure at Barcelona) what he could not create, he outsourced. The likes of Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Romario filled whatever cracks in the proverbial pavement. After seeing Barcelona's success, though, Spain began adopting the Catalans' style—essentially finding their own cement; that movement helped spark their national team's golden generation. 

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Spain's Euro 2008, Euro 2012 and 2010 FIFA World Cup victories cannot be properly explained without Cruyff's influence on Spanish football, Barcelona, La Masia and the tactics/technical football found therein.

By the same token, Barca winning 13 La Ligas, six Copa del Rey titles and five UEFA Champions Leagues since 1988/89 cannot be properly explained without the Dutchman, because in nearly every respect, he is what we understand as modern-day Barcelona.

Indeed, Cruyff's fingerprints are intrinsically stitched into every Barcelona shirt, watered into every blade of Nou Camp grass and etched on every trophy the Blaugrana have won since his 1973 arrival.

Football, unfortunately, lost on Thursday—but the game won (and so have we) because of Cruyff's indelible presence.

Follow @danieltiluk

*Stats via WhoScored.com; transfer fees via Soccerbase where not note