“In front of her you have to be strong”

The figure of a footballer is always a pure exhibition. In a world as passionate as football, and which creates so many idols, we often tend to ignore the personal part. If someone plays poorly, it is simply because they are not very professional or because their physical fitness is not adequate, not simply because they have problems in their personal life.

Jordi Cruyff therefore recalled in the aforementioned podcast that moment when he received criticism because they said that he did not seem focused on what was happening on the pitch. “It was a bit mysterious and you said that no one knew what was going on in your life and what had happened to your family,” former footballer Gary Neville, one of the presenters, told him. That’s when Johan Cruyff’s son spoke about his daughter’s cancer.

Life outside football

“I was talking to clubs about returning to training and one of those days I experienced the hardest moment of my life, when you found out your daughter had cancer. So you have to make decisions”, he discovered in the most complicated family episode that changed his life in many ways.

“In football we always think football is everything. We complain, we’re in a bad mood, we’re in a good mood when we win, all those things. And we think that’s the most important thing in the world. Reality slaps you in the face. “Now I see things differently than before,” he commented.

At that point in his life, Jordi Cruyff decided to devote himself one hundred percent to his daughter. So much so that I didn’t even put football on television.”I haven’t even watched a game in over a year. I wasn’t… I’d watch five minutes, turn it off and my head wasn’t up to it. My mind was just being there with my daughter, the operation, the bone, the titanium placement, the chemotherapy…” he explained.

Diagnosis by chance

Regarding the diagnosis, the former FC Barcelona footballer said that it came by chance. It happened when the young woman was about to go to Italy to study fashion and her daughter went to the doctor for knee pain. Danae got the date wrong and As fate would have it, he was treated by the doctor who discovered his illness..

It was a hard blow for the whole family and everyone had to learn to cope. “I was also, in a way, very angry at the world. Say, “That’s not fair. It shouldn’t be like this. I should be the one going, not her. But there comes a time when you have to wake up and say: ‘I can’t complain, because she’s there‘. And then I see others who have lost their daughters. “And who am I to be angry?” he indicated.

Jordi Cruyff remembered the importance of his teammate Luis Enrique. The current PSG coach lost his young daughter to bone cancer. “When he talks about it, he helps a lot of people, even without knowing it. His strength, the way he talks about it, the way he tries to get through it.…,” he said in the podcast about how Luis Enrique was an inspiration to him.

“Cancer-free”

Jordi Cruyff assured that “I need to be grateful” and that this is “probably where I’ve been for a while now.” “In front of her, you know, you have to be strong because she you also have to be positive and believe“You know, and you have to be… Well, let’s be honest, she’s probably stronger than me,” he said.

That’s when the most special moment arrives. His daughter came onto the recording set to surprise him and thanked her father for everything he had done for her. “I’m doing great and healthy, which is the most important thing,” she said to everyone’s enthusiasm. “Thanks to my amazing surgeon, I managed to remove the tumor and then underwent six intense months of chemotherapywhich enjoyed astonishing success. I had the ultrasounds three weeks ago and I am finally free from cancer», he writes in a text.