Dutch football in the 1970s with a set of epoch-making "all-round football" and the rise of the international football world, the invention of this set of football tactics of the national team coach Rhus Michels is certainly an important figure in planning, and the focus of the implementation of this set of tactics on the field believes that most fans will think that the Dutch king Cruyff, but in fact, a group of teammates around Cruyff are willing to be green leaves and skilled execution tactics are also the main elements of the team's success, of which the all-around green leaf John Neskens is an indispensable person.
Born on September 15, 1951 in the northern Dutch town of Hemsteide, John Neskens loved to dabble in different ball sports such as football, baseball, basketball, etc., and showed a high talent in various sports, and finally chose football in middle school and aspired to become a footballer. At the age of 14, Johanneskens joined a local team, RCH, and at the age of 17, he was promoted to a first-team debut and became a main member of the defense of the Dutch second division team; during his two seasons with the parent team RCH, John Neskens played a total of 68 games for the team, scoring one goal, although he failed to help the team to advance to the Eredivisie, But John Neskens successfully attracted the attention of the then Ajax manager Renus Michels with a stable and mature performance than his peers. He was recruited by Ajax in 1970.
After coming to Ajax, Johanneskens initially took up a defensive position, although he failed to help the team win the league title, but first defeated Sparta Rotterdam in the Dutch Cup final to become the champion, and then defeated Greek powerhouse Panacinaikos 2-0 in the Champions League final to win the championship. The following season, John Neskens was moved to midfield by the successor manager Stefan Kovac to support Cruyff, the soul of the squad, and John Neskens quickly proved himself to be a good fit for this position by performance, scoring 10 goals for the team in the season, helping the team to win the league title, and leading the team to successfully defend the title by defeating The Hague 3-2 in the Dutch Cup final, and later helping the team to reach the Champions League final, beating Serie A powerhouse Inter Milan 2-0 to successfully defend the title. In the 1972/73 season, John Neskens maintained a high level of performance, scoring a record goal ahead of the Intercontinental Cup, helping the team to win the championship by beating Argentina's Indie Athletic 3-0, successfully defending the title in the league, and leading the team to the Champions League final, facing Serie A powerhouse Juventus, winning the championship 1-0 and becoming the third consecutive Champions League title.
At Ajax, he had already shown all the conditions to be a world-class midfielder, and with a surprising performance at the 1974 World Cup, John Neskens moved with the team and the national team's best partner, Cruyff, and was favored and recruited by La Liga powerhouse Barcelona in 1974. In the five seasons spent at Camp Nou, John Neskens was not successful, and failing to help the team become La Liga champions became a major regret in John Neskens' career; in the 1977/78 season, although the team was inferior to real Madrid in the league and only finished second, he became more and more courageous in the Spanish Copa del Rey, eliminating getafe, Alaves, Real Sociedad and other opponents to reach the final, facing another La Liga team, Las Palmas, defeating the opponent 3-1. Successfully won the championship.
In the following season, the team's record continued to decline under Cruyff's departure, the league could only rank 5th, in the Spanish Copa del Rey 4-5 defeat to Valencia and stopped in the round of 16 and defended the title, but in the Cup winners' cup has been passed, successively eliminated the Soviet Union's Donetsk miner, Belgium's Anderlecht, England's Ipswich City, another Belgian team Wasland Beveren and other opponents, successfully advanced to the final, facing the German team Dusseldorf, After 120 minutes of fierce fighting, he defeated his opponent 4-3 to win the Cup Winners' Cup for the first time, which was also john Neskens' last trophy in European football. In 1979, the 28-year-old John Neskens left Barca and played in the North American League, joining the New York Universe, after playing for 6 seasons, returned to the Netherlands at the end of 1984 to join the Dutch team Groningen; a year later returned to the North American League to join the Florida Suns, and then moved to the Swiss League, and officially announced his retirement in 1991 at the age of 40.
After moving to Ajax, Johanneskens played for the national team for the first time in the 1972 Euro 1972 qualifiers away to East Germany in November 1970, becoming an important member of the "Orange Army" and performing a hat-trick in the 1974 World Cup qualifiers at home to Norway in November 1972, helping the team to break the opponent 9-0 and the only international match to "wear a hat".
In the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, the Netherlands reached the final round again after 1934, and became the miracle of the tournament with the amazing "all-round football" at that time, with the soul of Cruyff as the focus of the attack, but John Neskens' performance and importance were also recognized, helping the team to pass the hurdles, including the second round of the group stage 2-0 defeat to defending Brazil, John Neskens also scored a goal in the battle, helping the team to advance to the final, facing the host West Germany, Less than two minutes after the opening of the match, Cruyff scored a penalty under the opponent's no player touching the ball, John Neskens shot into the net, helping the team to open the record first, but in the end, the opponent won 2-1, failing to create a miracle to win the championship, but the team's wonderful performance has won a lot of applause, and John Neskens also became the top scorer with 5 goals.
After winning the third place at the 1976 European Championship, Cruyff announced his retirement from the national team after being threatened with death before the 1978 World Cup, and Since then John Neskens has become the leader of the Dutch squad; in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, John Neskens once again helped the team reach the final, but after 120 minutes of fierce fighting with his opponents in the final, he lost the championship 1-3 to host Argentina. After the tournament, John Neskens faded out of the national team, and after moving to the North American League, he was even farther away from the mainstream media and the public, so he was not selected for the Netherlands' squad for Euro 1980, and then announced his retirement from the national team in 1981, over the years John Neskens played 49 games for the Netherlands, scoring 17 goals.
In 1995, John Neskens was invited by the then national team coach Hiddink to play as an assistant coach for the national team, playing in Euro 1996 and the 1998 World Cup in France, helping the team to win the world cup; after Hiddink left the game, Rijkaard continued to use John Neskens as his deputy until the Netherlands was out of the quarter-finals of Euro 2000. Nesskens stepped down with Rijkaard.
After that, the former Netherlands international coached the Dutch side Nijmegen for 4 seasons, during which he helped the team, which has always been only the middle and lower reaches of the Dutch League, to win a historic European place; at the end of 2005, John Neskens reunited with Hiddink again as an assistant coach of the Australian national team, and left the team after the 2006 World Cup to return to Barcelona as the deputy of coach Rijkaard, with a share of creating a "Dream 3"; then John Neskens coached the Dutch B team. He also accompanied Rijkaard to the Turkish Super League team Galatasaray as his deputy, and then to South Africa to coach; at present, he has not coached any team. Born from the defensive, John Neskens has been transformed into a midfielder due to his excellent transmission ability and long-range shooting ability, in fact, this former Ajax star plays hard, has a wide coverage on the field, plus the plate, pass, control, shooting, attack and defense, so it is regarded as the first generation of "Box-to-Box" all-round midfielder in the history of football, and is the best partner of the ball king Cruyff's player era.