Gulit ore. Ruud gullit. Ruud Gullit now

Ruud Gullit, in my opinion, is the brightest representative of the incredibly talented generation of the Dutch national team, which brought this football country its only official title so far.

Ruud Gullit

• Country: Holland.
• Position – attacking midfielder.
• Born: September 1, 1962.
• Height: 186 cm.

Biography and career of a football player

Ruud Gullit is the son of George Gullit, a native of Suriname, and Maria Diehl, a native of Amsterdam. Since childhood, Gullit knew only one hobby - football and stood out among his peers with his ability to handle the ball.

However, when he came to the world-famous Ajax school, he was disappointed.

“I was advised to start with a more modest team, where the requirements for players are not so high,” the footballer recalled much later.

I think it would not be a great exaggeration to say that this was the biggest mistake of the Amsterdam club's selectors.

"Harlem"

1979-1982

Gullit signed his first professional contract at the age of 16 and became the youngest player to take the field in an Eredivisie match, the top division of the Dutch championship. The prodigy played just great - 24 matches and 4 goals for a virtual schoolboy, the result is simply outstanding. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember any such examples offhand.

True, Haarlem was relegated to the second division, but a year later they returned back. And Gullit became the real leader of the team - 36 matches, 14 goals scored and the title of best player in the second division. And this at 17 years old!

Feyenoord

1982-1985

Naturally, such talent did not go unnoticed by the leading Dutch clubs, the quicker of which was Feyenoord, which paid half a million dollars for the player’s transfer - a more than serious amount at that time.

In Rotterdam, Gullit crossed paths with the great, who was ending his career, but according to the footballer himself, performing next to such a master gave a lot professionally.

In addition to improving his skills, at Feyenoord Gullit won his first trophies - the championship and the Dutch Cup, and in 1984 he became the best football player in the national championship.

PSV

1985-1987

It seemed that Gullit had already demonstrated all his abilities, but in Eindhoven, where he moved for 600 thousand dollars, his scoring talent was revealed.

Acting closer to the attack, Gullit began to score a lot; in the Dutch championship alone, over two seasons, he hit the goal of PSV’s opponents 46 times. No, of course, Ruud has scored before, but more than 20 goals in a season is the indicator of a serious forward.

And if earlier they talked about Gullit as a huge talent, then in two years at PSV he finally developed into a mature master, a top-class player. Good speed, vision of the field, pass, shot, heading, plus his versatility made him a transfer target for all top clubs without exception.

"Milan"

1987-1993, 1994

The most efficient of all was the Italian tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who paid an unthinkable at that time $9 million for Gullit, which became a transfer record.

Together with Gullit, his teammate from the Dutch national team arrived in Milan, and a year later, Frank Rijkaard. The then coach of Milan, Arigo Sacchi, relied on the Dutch trio in attack - the lion's share of Milan's goals were scored with their direct participation.

It is not surprising that in the two Champions Cup finals that were victorious for Milan at that time, only the Dutch stood out - in 1989 against Steaua (4:0), Gullit and Van Basten scored a double each, and in 1990, the only one in the match with Benfica “Rijkaard scored the goal from a pass from Gullit.

These years were truly golden for Milan - in addition to the above-mentioned victories in the main club tournament of the Old World, Milan, after a nine-year break, was able to win the Italian championship and never fell out of the top three during the “Dutch” period.

But these were also Gullit’s best years - it was while he was a Milan player that he would receive his Ballon d’Or and become European champions as part of the national team.

True, parting with the Dutchman did not turn out very well - Gullit’s contract with Milan expired, and he moved to Sampdoria for the amount established by UEFA for such cases of one million dollars (the concept of a “free agent” did not exist then).

This was due to the arrival of Fabio Capello to the club, who won everything he could with Milan, but drove the players into strict limits. In my opinion, it was difficult for such an extraordinary person as Gullit to act with such restrictions.

A year later, Milan will return Gullit, but he will spend several months at the club, after which he will leave it completely.

Sampdoria

1993-1994, 1994-1995

And at the age of 31, Gullit began to play in Sampdoria as it seems he had never played before. Having received complete freedom of action (Fabio Capello had him tied to the right flank of midfield), he managed to do everything literally, quickly found a common language with the team leader and himself took leading positions in the team.

He played one of his best matches in Turin against Torino, when his two goals turned the tide of an unsuccessful match for Sampdoria - 3:2. After the game, all Italian newspapers circulated Berlusconi's statement:

“Sorry, Ruud, I did something stupid.”

But already in the next round, Sampdoria hosted Milan and by the 25th minute they were “burning” 0:2. However, genius is genius: first Gullit organized the first return goal, and then, with the score 2:2, he scored the winning goal. I wonder what Berlusconi said after this meeting?

As a result, Sampdoria became third in the 1993-1994 season, and Gullit was the club's top scorer with 15 goals. By the way, in Milan he could not boast of such performance.

Gullit spent the beginning of the next season in Milan, and upon returning to Genoa, he again began to delight fans with his play, playing in 22 championship matches and scoring 9 goals.

Chelsea

1995-1998

Gullit graduated from England. Chelsea was then one of the middle peasants of the newly created Premier League, and English club football of that time was different from the current one - the emphasis was then on flank passages, crosses and combat in the air.

But even here Gullit did not get lost, despite the fact that he was already over 30. And after the departure of head coach Glen Hoddle, he became a player-coach and in this capacity won his only English trophy - the FA Cup.

Holland team

1981-1994

Ruud Gullit played his first match for the national team at the age of 19 - it was a friendly game against the Swiss national team. But Gullit, as well as the entire Dutch team, managed to get to a major tournament only in 1988 - the Dutch managed not to qualify for the 1982 and 1986 World Championships and Euro 1984.

But it was a triumph for the magnificent “orange” team. Gullit himself played excellently, although he scored only one goal, but this goal was the first in the final match against the USSR national team.

At which many expected a breakthrough from the Dutch, the team leaders failed. With all this, there were fewer complaints about Ruud Gullit. He went to the tournament without being in optimal shape after another injury. Gullit tried hard, got partners, ran a lot. But... the ball bounced off his foot, his sharp passes, passes and shots disappeared. It was clear that Gullit would soon regain his former condition, but the World Cup could not wait. As a result, the Dutch team was unable to win a single match and left the tournament after the 1/8 final meeting with the German team.

The Dutch national team was the best team in the championship, But in football, if you are the best, it does not mean that you are a winner. Well, the Dutch learned this truth a long time ago. Here too, in the semi-finals, they could not cope with the Danish national team and lost to them in a penalty shootout.

And the departure of Ruud Gullit from the Dutch national team still causes bitterness for me personally. After all, he was part of the team preparing for the World Cup in the USA, but at the last moment the then Dutch coach Dick Advocaat did not include Gullit in the final application. The reason was far from being a game one - the footballer was in excellent shape. Gullit just didn’t like the way the national team played, the situation in the team, which he didn’t consider necessary to keep silent about.

I don’t know who was right in this situation, but first of all, the Dutch team played. She then represented an interesting fusion of experience and youth: Frank Reikaard, young but already seasoned. And who knows, maybe it was Gullit’s skill and charisma that the Dutch lacked in that mind-blowing quarter-final, lost to the future world champion, the Brazilian team, with a score of 2:3.

Gullit always wore his national team jersey with pride:

“Playing for your country is the best thing that can happen to a footballer,” is one of his most famous quotes.

Ruud Gullit's titles

Team

1. Three-time Dutch champion.
2. Winner of the Dutch Cup.
3. Three-time Italian champion.
4. Winner of the Italian Cup.
5. Three-time winner of the Italian Super Cup.
6. FA Cup winner.
7. Two-time Champions Cup winner.
8. Two-time winner of the European Super Cup.
9. Two-time winner of the Intercontinental Cup.
10. European champion 1988.

Individual

1. Winner of the 1987 Ballon d'Or.
2. Dutch Footballer of the Year 1984 and 1986.
3. Goal athlete in Holland - 1987.
4. Included in the FIFA 100 list.

Ruud Gullit – coach

After leaving Chelsea as a player-coach, Ruud Gullit worked for Newcastle, Feyenoord, Los Angeles Galaxy, and the Dutch youth team. But Gullit never achieved any success in the coaching field.

His last place of work was the Grozny Terek - in 2011, Gullit worked there for less than six months and was fired for unsatisfactory results.

Personal life of Ruud Gullit

What Gullit cannot be called is an exemplary family man - he was married three times. He separated from his first wife, Yvonne de Vry, after almost ten years of living together, when the couple raised two daughters.

Gullit's second wife was the Italian model Cristina Penza, who gave birth to Ruud's son and daughter. The dissolution of this marriage was accompanied by a long legal procedure related to the division of property.

Gullit's third wife was Estelle Cruyff. Yes, yes, not a namesake at all, but the niece of Johan himself. From this marriage, Gullit also has two children - daughter Joelle and son Maxim.

• At the same time as Gullit, his future long-term partner Frank Reikaard came to the Ajax football school, who, unlike Ruud himself, was accepted into the famous school.
• Gullit made his debut in the Dutch national team on his birthday - September 1, 1981.
• Ruud Gullit dedicated his Golden Ball to anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela, who was serving a prison sentence at the time.
• Gullit's versatility is known to everyone - he could play in any position in midfield and attack. But few people know that in Haarlem, Feyenoord and later in Chelsea, he played a sufficient number of matches in the free libero position and played very successfully.
• Gullit has serious musical experience: in his youth he played bass guitar in a reggae band, and after the victory of the Dutch national team at Euro 1988, he took part in recording a song dedicated to this event

Recently, Gullit has acted as a consultant on various football channels, and since August 2016 he has joined the coaching staff of the Dutch national team, headed by his former national team partner Danny Blind.

Ruud Gullit was born in 1962, on September 1, in Amsterdam. This is a famous Dutch football player who, after completing his professional career, became an excellent coach. He is one of the best football players of the 20th century. And of course, this man entered the FIFA 100. He has a huge number of achievements and a very interesting career, so it’s worth talking about all of this briefly.

Early years

Rud Gullit is the son of a Surinamese emigrant and his mistress named Maria Deal. The footballer's father had three children and an official family. True, he provided for Rud and his mother completely. Often the boy even met with his sisters and brother.

And Rud Gullit started with street, yard football. He lived in the Jordan area and it was in his yards that he played ball with local boys. And his first team was a youth FC called “Meerboys”. Rude came there in 1970. But when he was 10 years old, he moved with his mother to Oud West, another district of Amsterdam. The previous conditions were terrible - the room was only 6.5 x 4 m. But even after moving, Rude continued to play football. It’s interesting, but it was in childhood that he met a boy named And he, as everyone knows very well, later became a real star of Dutch football.

The way little Rud Gullit played for the local DVS team could not go unnoticed. The coaches of the Dutch youth team saw this. So the boy was invited to join the team, where he began training at a professional level. Then, after some time, representatives of Ajax contacted him. But since they demanded the arrival of the young man with his mother and father, the contract was not signed. After all, his parents worked and were very busy. Ajax did not agree to the teenager’s solo visit. Now Rud Gullit says that since then he has not heard anything more stupid - the club wanted him, but he had to come with his parents.

Club career

In 1978, the player began playing for Haarlem. His professional debut in the first team took place at the age of 16, making him the youngest footballer in the history of the top division. Ruud Gullit showed himself superbly - scoring goals and making assists. The head coach even called him “the Dutch Duncan Edwards.”

In 1982, he moved to Feyenoord for $550,000. With this club he won the Cup and the national championship. In 1984, the young man was recognized as the best football player in the Netherlands. The following year he moved to PSV. There he was again recognized as the best in Holland. And it was at PSV that the footballer showed himself to be a world-class player. There he was already noticed by really famous clubs. Therefore, in 1987, Rud Gullit accepted an offer from Milan (they paid $8,900,000 for him) and left for Italy. In his first season, he won the Scudetto with the team.

Peak of success

Ruud Gullit, whose photo is presented above, became one of the best Milanese players. He showed himself to be a strong and technical football player. Even with an injury in the Champions Cup final, he played all 90 minutes and made an assist. Then Milan beat Benfica.

True, over time the player began to lose his skill. In the 1992/93 season, he did not even make it into the Champions League final squad. Therefore, in 1993, the footballer moved to Sampdoria. In his first season, he and the team won the Italian Cup. Many fans of the team fell in love with Ruud Gullit. The best goals of that season became significant for the team - for example, the goal scored against Milan (former club) became decisive in the final match for the Italian Cup. The Dutchman showed a very convincing and technical game - so AC Milan invited him back.

In 1995, the footballer moved to Chelsea as a free agent. By the way, the player claims that the time spent in London is the happiest period in his life.

Coaching activities

Ruud Gullit is a footballer who has become a legend. This is one of those cases where a great fielder became a great coach. In 1996, he took over at Chelsea while continuing to play. In his first season, he and the club achieved victory in the FA Cup. It was only the following year, when Chelsea were firmly in second place in the Premier League and had reached the quarter-finals of every English cup, that Rood was sacked. Which shocked him. He could not even imagine that the people with whom he had to work and communicate every day would do this to him.

But then he began coaching Newcastle United and led the team to the National Cup final. Then he headed the Dutch youth team, and in 2005/06 he headed Feyenoord. He coached the Los Angeles Galaxy for another year. And then - I went to Russia! Where he coached Terek players for about a year. However, he was criticized and fired - they say the team performed with very poor results. But this was hardly his fault - after all, he is a good coach, and this is evidenced not only by the results of previous teams, but also by personal achievements, of which there are more than a dozen.

The career of a football player with the appearance of a rock star, Ruud Gullit, developed so brilliantly that the Dutchman was included in all sorts of symbolic teams, lists of the best players of all times. He is the first foreign coach to win a title in the English Premier League. And according to former colleagues, he is a lover of conflict and a master of showing off at someone else’s expense.

Childhood and youth

Ruud Deal was born on the first day of September 1962 in Amsterdam. Gullit is the surname of George’s father, who had his own family, and the man simply dated the boy’s mother, Maria. The football player signs all documents as Dil.

Ruud played ball with the neighborhood kids, and tried to choose opponents older than himself in age. Gullit's game was characterized by an elusive ability to combine athleticism with refined technique.

The first club was the amateur Mer Boys; at the age of 15, the guy was called to defend the honor of the national team, assembled from schoolchildren. However, when Ruud came to the Ajax academy, he was turned away. The young athlete was advised to choose a more modest school.

Later, Ajax will come to bow and ask Ruud to come with his parents. Because they are busy, they won’t be able to, but the club didn’t want to see Gullit alone. In an interview, the football player recalled that he had never heard anything more stupid - they were waiting for the player, so what did the parents have to do with it.

Football

The professional sports page in Ruud’s biography opened with his first contract with Haarlem. The youngest player in the top division of the national championship scored 32 goals in 91 matches and led the team into European competition for the first time. At the same time, Gullit made his debut in the national team.

A football player with impressive dimensions (weight – 83 kg, height – 190 cm) played in all positions except goalkeeper. He started as a libero, tried in attack and settled in midfield. Gullit’s usual number was 10, only in Sampdoria he got 4 - you can’t take away the T-shirt from him.

In 1982, Ruud moved to Rotterdam, to Feyenoord, where he found. Working alongside such a master gave the midfielder a lot professionally. The second season of playing for the “Pride of the South” brought Gullit the title of footballer of the year, the Cup and victory in the Dutch championship.

In the next club, PSV, Ruud began to play the role of a playmaker. This is where thinking outside the box, seeing the game situation and sprinting speed came in handy. Gullit scored 46 goals for the team from Eindhoven, helping to regain and defend the title of the best club in the country.

In 1987, the idol of the Netherlands went abroad - the president of Milan came to the rescue, paying a then-record $9 million for the player’s transfer. In the Italian team, Gullit formed a striking trinity with his childhood friend Frank Rijkaard, and in his first year he received the Golden Ball " For the sake of Milan, the midfielder “sacrificed” his knee, entering the field with an untreated injury.

In the Apennines, the Dutchman collected a collection of three Italian Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, a pair of Intercontinental and European Champions Cups. While playing for Sampdoria, he also won Coppa Italia. In the final of the 1988 European Championship, the Dutch national team, with the participation of Gullit, scored 2 unanswered goals against the USSR national team. But before such an important match, the midfielder's team spent a stormy evening at a concert.

After two seasons at Chelsea in England, Ruud remained there as a player-coach, and under him the Blues won the FA Cup for the first time in 26 years. Gullit left Newcastle due to a conflict with leading players, although he denied this.

Sporting troubles led to his resignation from Feyenoord. Then, during the season, Ruud “ruled” the American “Los Angeles Galaxy” in the lineup. The former football player came to the post of coach of the Russian club Terek from Grozny on the advice of.

But, despite the fact that the contract was for 1.5 years, Gullit was shown the door after 6 months. The last straw was an own goal. In addition, the Dutchman was accused of not finding a common language with the players, not understanding the essence of the team, hanging out with the players in nightclubs and allowing himself to speak incorrectly about the Chechen Republic.

True, during this time Ruud managed to hold a friendly match between the symbolic teams of Brazil and with the participation of Vladimir Beschastnykh and, Vagiz Khidiyatullin and Romario, Cafu and Bebeto.

After unsuccessful attempts by the Netherlands to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and the resignation of Danny Blind, Gullit announced that he was ready to lead his native team. However, he was invited to lead the “orange”, and Ruud got the post of his assistant.

Personal life

Ruud got married for the first time at the age of 22. Yvonne de Vries gave her husband two daughters, but the athlete left the family barely waiting for the birth of the youngest, Charmaine. For the second time, the football player walked down the aisle with Italian model Cristina Penza. Despite the birth of his daughter Cheyenne and son Quincy, Gullit again started divorce proceedings.

It seemed that Ruud found family happiness with the niece of the Barcelona player and coach, his teammate Johan Cruyff. With Estelle Cruyff, the former football player raised his daughter Joelle and son Maxim. But in 2012, the family boat cracked.

A couple of years later, Gullit met a girl named Margarita Jimenez. And now in the comments to the photo in "Instagram" Ruud calls the spectacular brown-haired Karine de Roy his friend.

Ruud Gullit now

In 2018, Ruud Gullit assembled a three-person e-football team; two members have already received tickets to the FIFA eWorld Cup. The former member of the Dutch national team does not play himself, but says that this is done by people who are good at computers. It only has the functions of management, financing and expert analysis. In addition, Gullit wants to dispel the myth of computer games as a worthless hobby for home hermits. By the way, the winner of the 2017 championship received a check for £150 thousand.

The Dutch footballer himself became the hero of the computer simulation game Pro Evolution Soccer-2018 by the Japanese company Konami. The update package features Italian clubs Milan and Inter. Ruud and Paolo Maldini “play” for the “Devils”, Javier Sanetti, Dejan Stankovic, Francesco Toldo “play” for the “Snakes”.

“Black Tulip” also attended the “live” World Cup in Russia, was delighted with its organization and assumed that the championship cup would go to France. The fly in the ointment in the overall picture of Gullit’s impressions was the constant delays in aircraft departures at airports.

Awards

• Dutch Cup winner
• Three-time winner of the Dutch top football league
• Three-time winner of the Italian Serie A
• Three-time winner of the Italian Super Cup
• Two-time UEFA Super Cup winner
• Two-time UEFA Champions League winner
• FA Cup winner
• Winner of the 1988 European Championship
• Winner of the Golden Ball

Ruud Gullit

How to watch football. A sofa expert's guide

Information from the publisher

Published with permission from PENGUIN BOOKS LTD and Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd. c/o Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright holders.

Original English language edition first published by Penguin Books Ltd, London

© Ruud Gullit, 2016

The author has asserted his moral rights

All rights reserved

© Translation into Russian, publication in Russian, design. Mann, Ivanov and Ferber LLC, 2017

Introduction

Every football player has his own style. This also applies to football analysts. There are provocateur analysts; there are high-profile analysts; There are those who certainly want to remain friends with everyone. When broadcasting football, broadcasters often offer a mixture of these commentary styles to give viewers the full picture.

When I act as an analyst, I follow the game more like trainer than as a player. Many fans watch the game simply as spectators. This is quite natural, but it is the difference between watching a game and looking at a ball.

First of all, I look at how the coach built the team. This immediately gives an idea of ​​his goals and how he plans to counter his opponent. When the match starts, you look at how the team is executing the game plan and to what extent this plan was predicted by the opposing team. As the game progresses, you can judge which team is dominant and is able to gain an advantage through strategy and tactics. It happens that you have been watching the game for several minutes, but the ball has never hit your field of vision.

The game continues and I keep an eye on the details and look for reasons why things are going wrong. Anyone can see the error, but why did it happen? Where and why do teams get inaccurate? Often the problem is not caused by the player who made the mistake (for example, the last defender or goalkeeper), but its roots are much deeper. And not all viewers can notice this. And this is where the analyst comes into play: he is called upon to point out moments that are not so obvious, but have a significant impact on the course of the game. I usually also try to explain how the mistake could have been avoided. At the same time, I am not looking for scapegoats. I am critical, based on what I see, and remain respectful of the players and coaches. I don't need to score points in the press with harsh statements.

I have a positive outlook on football. In the end, I owe a lot to football. This sport has given me everything. I have no desire to publicly wash dirty laundry: I try to analyze as objectively as possible. I'll be honest, it's hard to talk objectively about some of my former teammates - for example, Frank Rijkaard, Carlo Ancelotti or Marco van Basten. I always have a good attitude towards them, interpret any doubts in their favor and sometimes even openly support them.

I prefer technical, well-planned, open football, but the only goal should always be to win. It's nice to see how the team throws all its strength into the attack. But this does not always pay off: for example, last season the Champions League and Europa League were won by non-favorites - Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, respectively. Both teams lacked the hard-nosed, win-at-all-costs approach of professionals. Even if this means stepping on the throat of one’s own song and playing football that is not typical for oneself when the situation demands it.

I love watching Barcelona play, but at the same time I can't stand it when the opposition raises its paws in front of the greatness of Messi and company. To win, you need to do everything that is allowed by the rules, even against Barcelona.

That's why I liked Atlético Madrid's performance in the quarterfinals of the 2015/16 Champions League. For what reasons would Atlético suddenly start playing Barcelona's game, thereby dooming itself to destruction? Because that's what neutral fans would want? If you can't win by simply playing football, other considerations besides pure talent may come into play: tactics, moral and physical strength. All this is good for victory.

Diego Simeone's team prepared at different levels to reach the Champions League semi-finals; In the end, Atlético managed to surpass the seemingly invincible Barcelona thanks to tough, masculine football.

At the same time, I also enjoyed playing in the quarter-finals at Manchester City. Unlike Atlético, Manuel Pellegrini's team did not play defensive football, but constantly attacked, which allowed them to knock out Laurent Blanc's stronger Paris Saint-Germain from the draw.

Circumstances dictated that Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool team take a different approach to defeat Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League quarter-finals, which came into the match as favourites. Twice Liverpool found themselves at Anfield in a seemingly hopeless position of catching up (0:2 and 1:3) and in the end, risking everything, launched a desperate attack. Under Liverpool's relentless onslaught, fueled by boundless energy and desperate optimism, the Germans eventually lost 3-4, conceding the decisive goal late in stoppage time.

Liverpool's achievements cannot be denied, but Borussia's mistake is also obvious in allowing itself to be defeated by the English club. Unable to either finish off her opponent by scoring a few more goals, or slow down the pace of play to upset the English plans, she allowed herself to be drawn into open play and simply forgot to close it. Borussia did not resort to the well-known methods of stalling time: no stomping at the corner flag, no theatrical rolling on the grass. From a spectator's point of view, such tactics are not the most pleasant thing in football, but, after all, the Europa League semi-final was at stake, one could go for it. To allow yourself to be drawn into the English game in a match against an English team was to create your own problems, and the result was defeat and elimination from the tournament.

I always watch with interest how teams realize their full potential. A great example is Atletico Madrid. The players on this team may not be the strongest players individually, but they interact better with each other and play with more discipline than their opponents.

When they play against a weaker team, which, in turn, adapts to their play, Atlético already has problems seizing the initiative. It's always easier to play as an opponent. In the 1/8 finals of the Champions League, Atlético was on the verge of relegation. PSV almost managed to eliminate Madrid, but they were able to win in a penalty shootout. PSV adapted to the opponent, so Atlético had to seize the initiative, and this is what poses difficulties for the team.

Watching the Atlético Madrid - Barcelona match as an analyst, I wanted to find out whether Barca could handle Atlético's selfless football. It turned out not to be the case, as they never got started and never showed the same level of motivation as their opponents. Barcelona's forwards continued to try to beat their opponents individually, and that's exactly what don't do it in a limited space. As a result, you can only lose the ball. Instead, you should try to maintain control of the ball for as long as possible, playing with one or two touches and maintaining the tempo. Wait for the opportunity to create space and use it. So you need to avoid martial arts and fouls. I was disappointed that a team like Barcelona, ​​with all their international stars, could not act in accordance with common sense when they saw how the game was developing. Plan A was perfected, but it turned out that it did not work, and there was no plan B. More precisely, Plan B was to move the tall central defender Gerard Pique into attack, where he could use his height. It was a desperate measure for which the players themselves were clearly unprepared, because Pique's teammates rarely supplied him with long, high passes from deep or from the baseline. This, in my opinion, exposed Barcelona's true weakness.

The tactic is to use the specific qualities of football players that determine the game - both in your team and in the opposing team. Paris Saint-Germain decided they could cover up their lack of versatile midfielders by using a 3-5-2 system against Manchester City that still gave Zlatan Ibrahimovic the support he needed. However, Laurent Blanc's tactical changes led to real chaos in the team. I suspect that no one has played in PSG under this scheme before, and yet the position and tasks of each player in it are different. As a result, any automatic reaction from the players was incorrect. By putting constant pressure on the back three, Manchester City managed to take control of the game.

RUUD GULLITT

(Born 1962)

He played for the Dutch clubs DSV Amsterdam, Haarlem, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, the Italian clubs Milan and Sampdoria, and the English club Chelsea. In 1981-1994 he played 66 matches for the Dutch national team.

Ruud Gullit belongs to the second “wave” of brilliant players with whom little Holland amazed the entire football world. If the brightest stars of the first galaxy were Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens, then the second were Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten. Fortunately, they had the opportunity to play together for a long time not only in the Dutch national team, but also in the same club - the Italian Milan. It was this Dutch trio that ensured the bright rise of the Milanese club in the late 1980s - early 1990s of the 20th century.

Ruud Gullit, in addition, stood out on the field not only for his brilliant play, but also for his colorful appearance - his enormous height, hairstyle similar to a lion's mane, braided into separate braids, and dark skin color, which he owes to his origin: his father comes from the South American country of Suriname , a former Dutch colony. He came to Amsterdam and married a Dutch woman. This is where Ruud Gullit was born.

It can be assumed that Surinamese men are endowed with certain “football genes”, which make themselves felt after moving to Holland in subsequent generations. In any case, the story of Frank Rijkaard's birth is exactly the same as Gullit's. There are also more recent examples - Patrick Kluivert's father is also Surinamese, who moved to Amsterdam. The only difference is that Patrick’s mother is not Dutch, but comes from Curacao, one of the islands of the Lesser Antilles archipelago.

Ruud was predicted to have a brilliant career as a football player from an early age. In 1973, he joined the amateur club Mer Boys and played in children's teams. When he was fifteen, he excelled in the national team of schoolchildren in Holland. But the following year, sixteen-year-old Gullit experienced huge disappointment. He came for a tryout at the famous Ajax football school, and it was then that fate first brought him together with Frank Rijkaard, but after watching him they took him, but not Gullit, recommending him to try his hand at some other team where the requirements for players were not very high.

So Ruud ended up at DSV Amsterdam, and a year later, when he turned seventeen, he signed the first professional contract in his life with Haarlem. In this modest club, Gullit, playing in midfield, was noticed by the coaches of the Dutch national team, where on September 1, 1981, on his birthday, he first came on as a substitute in a match against the Swiss national team. The following year he played for Feyenoord Rotterdam. In this club, in the 1983-1984 season, Gullit became the champion of Holland for the first time, and the club also won the National Cup. It is interesting that that season Johan Cruyff himself, who was already finishing his football career, also played for Feyenoord.

In the mid-1980s, Gullit proved that he was a truly versatile player. Before joining Feyenoord, he played in midfield, holding the center of the field. At the Rotterdam club, after a series of experiments, the coaches assigned him the role of a free defender. And when he moved to PSV Eindhoven in 1985, he became an attacking midfielder and scored a lot of goals. In his first season he hit the opponents' goal twenty-four times. Largely thanks to Gullit's goal-scorer, the Eindhoven club became the champion of Holland. The following season the club repeated its success, and this time Gullit scored 22 goals.

By this time, the Dutch national team had already formed a brilliant trio of Ruud Gullit, who plays for PSV Eindhoven, and two Ajax players - Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard - the same one with whom Gullit tried out for the famous school of the Amsterdam club. These three players formed the central axis of the entire team: Rijkaard was the mainstay of the defense, Gullit dominated the center of the field, although he often scored goals, and Marco van Basten acted at the forefront of the attack.

True, in 1986 the Dutch national team experienced an embarrassment - it did not pass the qualifying tournament for the next World Cup. But the most famous European clubs would be happy to acquire any player from the magnificent trio. The most efficient and generous of all was the Italian TV tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, who just then became the president of the Italian Milan and was eager to return his club to its faded glory. In 1987, he acquired both Gullit and van Basten at once. A year later, Frank Rijkaard joined them.

However, in his first season for Milan, Gullit played almost the entire game, while Marco van Basten was recovering from an injury. Nevertheless, Milan has indeed changed. The champion of Italy was then Napoli, where Maradona shone, but Milan beat the Neapolitans on their field with a score of 3:2. The 1987-1988 season has not yet ended, and Gullit has already received the prize from France Football weekly as the best football player in Europe in 1987. The following spring, Milan became the national champion - for the first time in the last ten years.

And the following year, the Dutch team also celebrated their victory, winning the European Championship, which was then held in Germany. In the final match, the Dutch defeated the USSR team - 2:0. Football fans remember this game most of all, of course, for the magnificent goal of Marco van Basten, scored against Dasaev with a kick from the very corner flag. But this was already the second goal of the Dutch national team, and the scoring in the first half was opened, and also very beautifully, by Ruud Gullit. Van Basten headed the ball into the center of the penalty area, where Gullit was rushing. Ruud drove the ball into the goal with a powerful header.

After the European Championship, Frank Rijkaard joined Gullit and van Basten. They formed the same main axis in the club as in the national team. The “Dutch era” began in Milan.

In April 1989, one of the most exciting matches in the history of the club was played. In the semi-finals of the European Cup, Real Madrid was defeated with a score of 5:0. Each of the three Dutchmen scored a goal. In the final, Milan defeated Steaua Bucharest - 4:0. Van Basten scored two goals, Gullit scored two. So, after a nineteen-year break, the club again won the most prestigious football award in Europe. A year later, Milan defeated Benfica in the final of the same European Cup. The only goal was scored by Frank Rijkaard.

However, Gullit's own football career was now overshadowed by a permanent injury. Back in 1988, he injured his knee, and since then surgery followed surgery. Gullit entered the final match with Steaua without completing his recovery, and then did not play for almost a year. Gullit was not entirely healthy on the day of the final match with Benfica, but it was he who brought Rijkaard to the Portuguese goal with an excellent pass.

At the 1990 World Cup in Italy, due to the same injury, Gullit played clearly below his capabilities. The Dutch team only reached the eighth final, where they lost to the German team - 1:2. True, in 1992 the Dutch took revenge on the Germans, defeating the team of the already united Germany at the 1992 European Championship. However, they themselves lost in the semi-finals in a penalty shootout to the Danish national team, the future champion.

In 1993, Gullit left Milan. He did not have a good relationship with the new coach Fabio Capello, who headed the club in 1991. He played the season at Sampdoria and played brilliantly, winning the Italian Cup with the team and scoring 15 goals. After this, Gullit was even called back to Milan, but history repeated itself - new troubles with the coach, and Ruud again ended up in Samdporia.

The great Dutchman ended his football career in England. In 1995, he was invited to Chelsea, where he no longer played in midfield, but as a free defender, as he had once done in Feyenoord Rotterdam. The following year, another change took place in Gullit's life - he became the club's player-coach. His greatest achievement in this post was winning the FA Cup in 1997. In the final, Chelsea defeated Middlesbrough 2:0.

At the beginning of 1998, Gullit unexpectedly left the London club, citing overwork. A year later he took over as coach of Newcastle. Under his leadership, this club also reached the FA Cup final, but lost to Manchester United - 0:2. Soon Gullit left Newcastle.

TRAINED MONKEY GULLITS? There are plenty of scandals in the troubled region. If today's Chechnya itself is a political project, then Grozny's Terek is a threefold political project. Although the club is based in Kislovodsk, coming to the republic only for home