We bring you this new series of Football Firsts - the pioneers who made modern football brilliant with their signature moves...and how you can do it too!

#1 - THE CRUYFF TURN

Watch the Belgium defenders carefully as Hal Robson-Kanu somewhat awkwardly controls the ball deep inside the penalty box.
 
One second the striker is facing the wrong way, closely marshalled by a commanding centre-back; the next, he stands alone with Thibaut Courtois at his mercy, and the goalkeeper is powerless to stop a ruthless finish.
 
It’s a moment of unscripted genius made possible by a deft swing of hips. .
 
Yet, the Cruyff turn, used so expertly by the Welsh striker to humiliate three international defenders, in fact dates back to 1974, when an enigmatic Dutchman changed the course of football history with one simple change of direction.
 
The date was the June 19. The venue was Dortmund’s legendary Westfalenstadion stadium. With 53,700 fans bearing witness, Johann Cruyff, the captain and symbol of a Dutch team considered by many to be the peak of Total Football, shakes off the close attention of Swedish defender Jan Olsson with a sublime piece of creativity.

Considering the hype and fame attached to it, the Cruyff turn can be broken down into surprisingly simple steps. It is, in essence, a feint. The key is that the leg faking the pass or shot drags over the top of the ball, pushing it back behind the opposite leg into space. Then, you shift your weight onto the opposite leg while turning 180 degrees, taking advantage of the defender’s momentary confusion. 
 
Easy, right? Cruyff certainly made it look easy. Olsson, so bamboozled by the move when it was first performed, still says today he can’t quite work out how it happened.
 
"I thought I was going to take the ball,” he said back in March, shortly after Cruyff’s passing. “I still cannot understand. Now when I see the video, every time I think I have got the ball.” One imagines the Belgian defenders might say something similar when they watch replays of Robson-Kanu’s goal. 
 
Cruyff’s turn is far more than simply daring trickery. It has come to represent everything associated with the iconic footballing philosopher, who believed firmly in the power of creativity and free-thinking, characteristics not always associated with football during the latter part of the 20th Century.
 
It was Cruyff’s Dutch team that paved the way for the modern brand of football, based around dominance of possession, fluid interchange of positions and an emphasis on technical skills. The legacy of Cruyff, and his magnificent turn, lives on through the ages.