Johan Cruyff statue unveiled at Camp Nou

This Monday the Camp Nou forecourt was the scene for the unveiling of a new statue honouring the memory of Johan Cruyff.

The club was represented at the event by president Josep Maria Bartomeu and fellow board members including Jordi Cardoner, Jordi Moix and Enrique Tombas, while the former Barça player and manager’s family included his wife Danny Cruyff, and his daughter and son Susila and Jordi.

Other guests included the president of the Government of Catalonia Quim Torra and the consul for the Netherlands in Barcelona, Dirk Kremer. The many former players included Carles Puyol, Sergi Barjuan and Albert Ferrer.

The statue is located at the grandstand entrance, close to the one of Ladislau Kubala. Cruyff is depicted in a pose that appears in one of the most iconic images of him as a player in the seventies, with the number 9 on hia back and issuing instructions with an outstretched arm.

The image reflects not just the way he was a leader on the pitch, but also off of it, especially in his later career as the coach of the Dream Team, and also for his many charity and business ventures developed under the World of Johan Cruyff, his personal legacy.

The 3.5 metre bronze statue weighs 1,500 kg and took for months for Dutch sculptress Corry Ammerlaan van Niekerk (Alphen aan den Rijn, 1947) to complete. The arist is widely renowned for her work, which usually focuses on the human form.

Ammerlaan is also the manager of the Artihove Art Centre in Rotterdam,  and her many projects include sculptures of Dutch legends Frank Rijkaard and Rinus Michels that currently stand at the headquarters of the Dutch Football Federation in Zeist.

More information about Corry Ammerlaan can be found here.