World Cup Legends: The birth of the planet's most famous turn 🇳🇱 | OneFootball

As the 2022 World Cup approaches, we are running through 10 of the biggest legends in World Cup history and how exactly they wrote their names into the history books.

Click here to read about all the legends we have singled out so far.

Johan Cruyff (Netherlands)

Perhaps no player in the modern history of the game has changed football the way Johan Cruyff has. There have been countless books written and statues built in honour of the Dutch supremo.

And to think he only ever played at one World Cup but still managed to leave a lasting impression. It’s fair to say that Cruyff’s legacy at the world’s biggest sporting event was like a shooting star: brief but spectacular.

The Netherlands came into the 1974 World Cup as one of the pre-tournament favourites alongside hosts Germany and Brazil. With Feyenoord and Ajax having won four of the last five European Cups, the Oranje were full of world class talent that had proved itself on the European stage.

Cruyff, though, was the epicentre around which everything turned.

The first group stage was a procession but delivered perhaps Cruyff’s most famous moment, the turn that was later named after him and remains so to this day came in a win against Sweden.

After easing through the first group it was the second, where the winners would head to the final, that saw Cruyff and co. proved they were inarguably one of the greatest sides ever.

Their Total Football philosophy was on full show as Argentina were dispatched 4-0 in the first game with Cruyff scoring twice. The first of those, a cheeky scoop around the onrushing goalkeeper, was one of the defining moments of the campaign and epitomised a side — and a player — in complete mastery of their craft.

East Germany, who had impressed earlier in the tournament, were beaten with ease 2-0 in Gelsenkirchen.

Which meant that all eyes were now pinned on Dortmund, where the Netherlands faced Brazil in what was an effective knockout semi-final with West Germany awaiting the winners.

It would go down as one of the greatest team performances in World Cup history as Rinus Michels’ men beat the reigning champions 2-0. The Brazilians hardly touched the ball for 90 minutes.

Cruyff would complete the scoring thanks a stunning diving header, with defender Wim Rijsbergen telling Fifa in an interview 40 years later that “a little country like ours beating Brazil – it was our greatest achievement”.

The Dutch had made it to their first ever final and faced their old enemy, Germany, in Munich.

Cruyff and his side could not have wished for a better start as the Ajax legend was fouled inside the area after only two minutes with the Germans having failed to even get a touch of the ball.

Subsequent players have since said that they wanted to humiliate the Germans for what their nation had done to theirs 30 years previously.

But that abandoning of their initial principles backfired as the Dutch went from 1-0 up to 2-1 down before half time and lost the most important match of their careers.

They may have come away from the tournament without a medal but they captured the hearts and minds of football fans everywhere and are still influencing the game today.