Johan Cruyff

Without a doubt Johan Cruyff is one of the most, if not the most influential person in the history of soccer, what he did changed the way many played the game. Aside from inspiring the people around him with his style of play in the pitch, what he did outside the pitch as a coach was much more influential. Him along with a couple other coaches helped create a style of play in which many have came to adopt. This style of play is known as tiki-taka, this moves away from the traditional formations that teams use, tiki-taka focuses more on zonal play and possession rather than sticking to a certain formation of players. Tiki-taka involves short but rapid passes that allow players to move around the pitch creating more open space to more effectively penetrate the oppositions defense. Johan Cruyff began to implement this style of play during his coaching career at FC Barcelona and as a coach of the dutch national team. He is in my opinion the most influential person in soccer today because not only did he create a style of play that allows a team to more effectively create space which would be adopted by many teams but he also began to introduce this style of play to young players in the Barcelona academy in which ultimately led to the creation of a number of small but technically talented players such as Pedro, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, and Messi that have also had a big influence on the club of Barcelona and the soccer world in general.