Category: If It Scores

Johan Cruyff’s legacy lives on—through Messi, through Bielsa, through Arsenal.

A month later, the world mourned the death of the man who changed football forever. Messi didn’t speak publicly. He didn’t need to. Because when he stepped onto the pitch in an Arsenal shirt later that year, he carried Cruyff’s legacy with him.

Messi is still great, but he is NOT the undisputed best player in the world.

By 2016, Barcelona is still a great club, but lacks identity.

The club still tried to play Total Football, but football had changed.

“I have built something beautiful here. But it is time for someone else to carry it forward.”

In real history, Arsène Wenger arrived at Arsenal in 1996 and transformed English football. But in this alternate timeline, he is not the man who brings revolution—he is the man chosen to continue it.

No wasted career – he becomes a true legend.

By 1995, Cruyff had rebuilt Arsenal completely. The club had a clear philosophy, a world-class academy, and had conquered England & Europe.

In choosing Arsenal as both his battlefield and his blueprint, Johan Cruyff didn’t just change a club—he rewrote the future of football.