European Paper Review

Johan Cruyff, friendlies and England in Berlin, where one German paper thinks the 4,000 travelling fans gave Germans “a lesson in fan culture.”

Johan Cruyff’s death last Thursday has dominated Europe’s newspapers in recent days – at least those that have been published. In Barcelona, the city where Cruyff lived for most of the last 42 years of his life, the only newspaper published on Good Friday was a special edition of Sport, with Cruyff cast as a Che Guevara style figure on the cover and the entire edition being dedicated to his life, with tributes from the great and good.

Cruyff was front page news on every Spanish newspaper over the weekend when Barça opened a memorial space at Camp Nou which over 30,000 people, including many Barça players, visited in the first 48 hours, while on Monday Sport’s cover again featured Cruyff’s face as part of a Camp Nou mosaic. “There is a clamour for Camp Nou to be renamed the Estadi Johann Cruyff” is the headline. Camp Nou will be extensively remodelled in the next five years with the capacity increased to 105,000. The club will talk with the Cruyff family and decide what measures to take, though there’s likely to be a huge show of affection and a collage for Saturday’s Camp Nou clasico.

Following Spain’s unconvincing friendly games – with Sunday’s 0-0 draw in Romania leading to a ‘Lack of Bite in Transylvania’ headline in AS, this week’s papers will build up to the clasico, with fans and experts predicting the teams. They’ve already started in Madrid, dropping James and Isco from the team with fans saying that Madrid should start with their best side, regardless of the more important Champions League fixtures to follow.

Germany reacted to the death of Johan Cruyff with sadness tinged with guilt. “It’s one of the tragedies of football that beauty doesn’t always win” said German legend Günter Netzer, referring to the 1974 World Cup final in Munich when Cruyff’s Holland lost to West Germany. “Heaven has a new playmaker” tweeted one of Germany’s modern greats, Tony Kroos. “The king is dead and the modern game is unthinkable without him” said Spiegel. Kicker described Cruyff as a “footballing revolutionary” and the Frankfurter Rundschau called him “a saint.”

In France, L’Équipe paid tribute to the Dutch legend with an emotive front page with the words “Il était le jeu” – he was the game.

“Forget about Rooney - Kane & Co are the new England stars!” Sportbild told German readers in the build-up to Saturday night’s friendly in Berlin’s Olympiastadion, and they will have felt very much vindicated on Sunday morning following England’s 3-2 win. “Help!” cried sister publication BILD, “we’re dreading the Euros with this defence!” after the world champions threw away a two-goal lead. Tagesspiegel called the match “an entertaining affair” but was highly critical of Germany’s “lax, airy-fairy football lacking vigour and drive.” “Löw knows what he has to work on” said Spiegel, “but the clock is ticking.”

Die Zeit was full of praise for Tottenham’s young stars, calling Dele Alli “the best man on the pitch despite being surrounded by the likes of Özil and Kroos” and adding: “Harry Kane delivered the ultimate homage to King Johan with his Cruyff Turn and finish.” Die Welt said it was an “evening full of lessons” for Germany and praised “shooting star Vardy.”

England’s 4,000 travelling fans also made positive headlines for once. “An away game in our own stadium” lamented Die Welt. “God save the friendly!” said Die Zeit, saying the vocal visiting support gave the Germans “a lesson in fan culture.”

In the absence of Bundesliga action, a number of transfer rumours have been doing the rounds. BILD reported that Arsenal are prepared to offer €50m for Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Granit Xhaka, whilst Die Welt speculated as to “who comes, who goes?” at Bayern Munich. The paper quoted Flemish daily Het Laatste Nieuws which believes that Munich is Romelu Lukaku’s preferred destination, ahead of Manchester United. They also quoted Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport who suggest that only concerns over injuries stand between Bayern defender Medhi Benatia and a loan spell at Juventus.

Süddeutsche Zeitung meanwhile believe out-of-favour Mario Götze wanted to return to Borussia Dortmund last summer but the Schwarzgelben couldn’t meet his buy-out clause. A return could still be on the cards however, despite Götze hardly being flavour-of-the-month among the hardcore on the Südtribüne.

In France, L’Équipe praised Dimitri Payet’s performance as Les Bleus beat the Netherlands 3-2 in Amsterdam, calling the West Ham man a “constant danger.” They were also impressed with Antoine Griezmann, “a star who has shown this season that he has the talent to guide Les Bleus to the top.” Broadcaster RTL drew most satisfaction from France’s attacking options, whilst France Football said Raphael Varane and Laurent Koscielny give France cause for concern at the back ahead of the European Championships.

Ahead of Sweden’s friendly against the Czech Republic on Tuesday, PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic told Swedish paper Expressen: “Big things are going to happen this summer. At the moment, I’ll be leaving Paris. The Premier League? I can confirm there has been interest, so we’ll see where that takes us.” Whatever he says, it won’t stop a thousand clickbait stories linking him with the club which attracts the most clicks, Manchester United.

In Italy, Sunday’s Gazzetta Dello Sport (a newspaper which celebrates its 120^th anniversary next week and will be printed in the original green – not pink – paper for a day) bemoaned the financial plight of Italy’s biggest clubs in comparison with the biggest rival leagues. “We are the poorest, we have to be clever” was Sunday’s headline. “The big clubs are on the attack for Pogba, Icardi, Pjanic and Higuain. And the Italian teams? We have to take the money and use our brains from Cavani (Juventus) to Milik (Inter)”. Serie A was the richest league in the world in 1990. It has now slipped to the fourth in Europe.