In an interview with Radio Catalunya, Dutch World Cup legend Johan Cruyff reveals more as to why he decided to boycott the 1978 World Cup, which the Dutch were favored to win. Cruyff has long said he refused to participate in the tournament because Argentina, the host, had suffered a military coup two years earlier, and he wouldn’t play in a country where he believed torture and murder were perpetrated by the government.
However, there was also another reason for the Dutch master’s absence: while playing for Barcelona in 1977, Cruyff said that his family was the subject of a kidnap attempt, and that he and his wife were threatened at gunpoint. “I had a rifle at my head, I was tied up, my wife tied up, the children were in the apartment in Barcelona,” he said.
Cruyff, who later played with the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League, didn’t elaborate, but he said that his house was placed under police protection for the next four months and that guards would accompany his children to and from school. He added that concern for his family kept him from participating in the World Cup. “To play a World Cup you have to be 200%,” said Cruyff. “There are moments when there are other values in life.” Holland, meanwhile, made it to the final of the 1978 tournament, losing to host Argentina, 3-1, in overtime.