Barcelona legend refused to play at World Cup due to heartbreaking reason that only came out 30 years later

A former Barcelona legend once refused to play at the World Cup after a harrowing thing happened to him and his family.

For most footballers, lifting world honours with their country is considered to be ‘the dream’. The likes of Pele, Diego Maradona, and more recently Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi have cemented their legacy in their respective countries’ history books with goals at the World Cup finals.

But for Johan Cruyff, he never had the opportunity to lift the Jules Rimet trophy.

Cruyff, a magical footballer, was known for his outspoken and eccentric approach to life.

The Dutchman was part of the great Netherlands side, which finished as runners-up in the 1974 World Cup.

The tournament hosts West Germany won the title with a 2-1 win at the Olympiastadion in Munich.

Two years later, in 1976, the ‘Oranje’ finished third at the European Championships. Cruyff was widely regarded as one of the best players in the world during this period, having won the Ballon d’Or three times – in 1971, 1973, and 1974.

In 1978, he was into his fifth year of a successful spell at Barcelona when a tragic thing happened at his home – although this was not made public until 30 years later.

Johan Cruyff in action for the Netherlands (Credit:Getty)

In 2008, the former Ajax man finally opened up about how his family had been the victims of a kidnap attempt at their home in Barcelona just months before the 1978 tournament.

He said several criminals entered his house and tied him and his family up at gunpoint.

"You should know that I had problems at the end of my career as a player here and I don't know if you know that someone [put] a rifle at my head and tied me up and tied up my wife in front of the children at our flat in Barcelona,” Cruyff told Catalunya Radio in 2008.

"The children were going to school accompanied by the police. The police slept in our house for three or four months. I was going to matches with a bodyguard.

"All these things change your point of view towards many things. There are moments in life in which there are other values.

"We wanted to stop this and be a little more sensible. It was the moment to leave football, and I couldn't play in the World Cup after this."

And despite Cruyff's absence, the Netherlands side reached the final of the tournament but ultimately fell short, losing 3-1 against Argentina in the country's capital of Buenos Aires.