Speaking to beIN Sports in light of Barcelona‘s Clasico defeat against Real Madrid, Dani Alves has criticised the club’s handling of the tributes for Johan Cruyff.
The Dutch master died at the end of March, aged 68, having achieved legendary status with both Barca and Ajax. Indeed, Cruyff will go down as one of the game’s all-time greats, not least for his remarkable showings with the Netherlands national side at the 1974 World Cup.
???? The tribute to Johan Cruyff in pictures: https://t.co/XR3OArIKC9 pic.twitter.com/9YygT23e2f
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 3, 2016
Barca honours Cruyff ahead of Saturday’s derby at the Nou Camp with a terrace mosaic which presented the message ‘Gracies Johan’ (Thank you Johan) and also shared a video which remembered the forward and his finest moments.
Despite also observing a minute’s silence, Dani Alves believes that more should have been done to honour the great man.
“With a figure as great as Cruyff, I think that you shouldn’t wait until he dies to hold it,” the right-back began, speaking to beIN Sports, as reported by AS.
“We should have done it long before,” he concluded.
The Brazil international featured on Saturday as Barca fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals.
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Gerard Pique opened the scoring for the home side, before goals from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo ensured a complete turnaround and an end to Barca’s remarkable undefeated streak.