Rinus Michels

Marinus ("Rinus") Jacobus Hendricus Michels (9 February 1928 – 3 March 2005) was a Dutch association football player and coach. He played his entire career for the club Ajax Amsterdam, which he later coached, and was a member of the Netherlands national team both as a player and as manager.

Michels became most notable for his coaching achievements, having won the European Cup with Ajax and the Spanish league with Barcelona, and having had four tenures as coach of the Netherlands national team, which he led to reach the final match of the 1974 World Cup and to win the 1988 European Championship. He is credited with the invention of a major football tactic known as "Total Football" in the 1970s, and was named "coach of the century" by FIFA in 1999.

Playing career

Michels was born in Amsterdam and grew up at the Olympiaweg, a street near the Olympic Stadium. He celebrated his ninth birthday on 9 February 1936, when he received a pair of football boots and an Ajax jersey. Moments later he was playing with his father at a small field near their home. Via Joop Köhler, a friend of the family who was commissioner at Ajax, Michels was introduced to the club and became a junior member in 1940. When World War II started,...
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