(CNN) He's won six league titles as coach of Barcelona and Bayern Munich as well as two Champions League finals with the Spanish club.
But for Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola there's no bigger title than fulfilling the legacy of his late mentor Johan Cruyff.
"It's a big honor that people think I can follow his legacy, or even try," Guardiola, who played under Cruyff when the Dutchman was coach of Barcelona between 1988 and 1996, tells CNN. "There's no bigger title than that."
For just as the La Masia graduate says meeting Cruyff for the first time opened up a "new world," Guardiola, who made his Barcelona debut in 1990, admits there's always more to learn -- and this even after over three decades at the top of the football pyramid.
Guardiola is now coaching his third major European club.
"I'll always believe that to create something revolutionary like Johan was, and Johan did, you need to be revolutionary," Guardiola says.
"Maybe (revolution's) coming. I don't know. Maybe it's going to show us something new I never saw before. But he did it. Especially in Barcelona. He arrived when we didn't know about many, many things.
"He showed us; he taught us."
Cruyff -- one of football's greats
Johan Cruyff, one of the finest footballers of all time and arguably Europe's greatest, was diagnosed with lung cancer in October 2015.
Cruyff, a highly successful player and manager, is renowned for the "Cruyff Turn," -- a maneuver copied by amateur and professional footballers all over the world for the four decades. He also helped to champion the "Total Football" philosophy which made the Ajax and Dutch national teams of the 1970s some of the most revered of all times.
Cruyff (bottom row, second from the right) helped Ajax to three consecutive European Cups in 1971, 1972 and 1973.
His success with Ajax and elsewhere helped him to win the Ballon d'Or -- the old European Player of the Year award -- three times in 1971, 1973 and 1974.
He also helped Netherlands to a first ever World Cup final in 1974, which it lost to host West Germany.
Despite losing the final, Cruyff received the Player of the Tournament award for his efforts in West Germany.
Cruyff moved from Ajax to Barcelona, where his skill once won the hearts of the Catalan fans. He also enjoyed success as Barca manager, guiding the team to its first European Cup triumph in 1992. Under Cruyff, Barca also won four consecutive Spanish La Liga titles, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Spanish Copa del Rey.
While in charge of Barcelona, Cruyff brought through his son Jordi into the team. Jordi went on to play for Netherlands and Manchester United.
Cruyff seen here with Pele, another of football's greatest ever players.
The 68-year-old's last coaching job was with Catalonia's unofficial "national" team, while he also served on Ajax's board until 2012.
My Turn
One of the game's most progressive thinkers, Cruyff -- who passed away in March, aged 68, after a battle with lung cancer -- leaves a legacy far greater than his mesmerizing turn, having helped define football as we know it today.
"I am sitting here in London, as coach of Manchester City ... because I met him," said Guardiola, flanked by Cruyff's son Jordi at the posthumous release of the football great's autobiography.
The former Ajax star always looked forward -- whether that meant bewitching the watching world with that singular piece of skill at the 1974 World Cup, pioneering Total Football or analyzing traffic lights to plan the optimum route through Barcelona's boulevards with his family.
The book's opening line -- "The past is not something I think about too much ... Everything I have done has been done with a view to the future" -- says it all about how Cruyff approached his life.
Cruyff's long shadow
But given the problems affecting football in the Netherlands today, it's difficult not to look back.
With a population of just 17 million, Holland has traditionally punched above its weight in international football, reaching the World Cup final three times and winning Euro 1988.
However, since the country's last World Cup final appearance two years ago, the Dutch have been defeated in 10 of their past 23 matches.
Holland didn't even qualify for Euro 2016 -- missing out on the tournament despite the expanded format comprising lesser footballing nations like Northern Ireland, Iceland and Albania.
Cruyff's legend looms large over Dutch football, such that it is impossible to consider the fabled orange shirts without recourse to a style of football perfected over 40 years ago.
"Of course, football has changed a lot from Total Football in the '70s to now," Jordi Cruyff tells CNN.
"Things have been modernized and there's not one coach who's going to do what [Cruyff] did, nor would he do what a coach today does."
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The ultimate football school?
Ajax is a club renowned for producing talented soccer players at its "De Toekomst" (or "the future") youth academy.
Ajax has won the European Cup four times, but its relatively small budget in comparison to Europe's other leading clubs, means a key part of its strategy is to develop young talented players that will be then be sold.
Now as well as developing players' skills on the pitch, the club's aspiring pros can now receive education at a dedicated school. Here the new building school building is officially opened by Ajax marketing director Edwin Van der Sar (second left), who was a former goalkeeper of the Dutch club, as well as Juventus and Manchester United.
"The focus of the Ajax School is the players' 'kitchen' -- which is both teaching space and congregating space," said Steven Lawrence, an advisor to Ajax. If young players fail to make the grade on the pitch, they will always be able to fall back on the diploma they earn from the school.
The training ground complex comprises nine football fields and is located close to the Amsterdam ArenA. Its main field has seating capacity for 2,000 people.
The club's groundbreaking philosophy of "Total Football" in 1970 was pioneered by legendary coach Rinus Michels, who guided the team to a European Cup win in 1971, before leaving to coach Barcelona. Under new coach Stefan Kovacs, Ajax also won the European Cup in 1972 and 1973.
Johan Cruyff is arguably the greatest player produced by Ajax and the three-time Ballon d'Or winner epitomized the idea of "Total Football."
The 1973 Ajax European Cup team poses for a photograph. Front row left to right, Sjaak Swart, Johnny Rep, coach Stephan Kovacs, trainer Bob Haarms, Ger Kleton, Jan Mulder, Cruyff and Gerrie Muhren. Back row, left to right, Arie Haan, Horst Blankenburg, Sies Wever, Wim Suurbier, goalkeeper Heinz Stuy, Piet Keizer, Ruud Krol, Heinz Schilcher, Arnold Muhren, Johan Neeskens and Barry Hulshoff.
Cruyff (picture center front row) then joined Barcelona from Ajax. The Dutchman went on to coach the Catalan club and is widely credited with helping instil the importance of youth development at Barcelona.
Part of the young Ajax team that conquered European in 1995, goalkeeper Van Der Sar wanted to give something back to the club. He now works as the club's marketing director.
The team Van der Sar played in won European club football's biggest prize -- the Champions League -- under Louis Van Gaal two decades ago. A 1-0 win over AC Milan was rich reward for a youthful team playing an exciting brand of attacking football. The average age of the team which took to the field in Vienna was 23. Patrick Kluivert (right) scored the decisive goal.
Van Gaal, now Manchester United manager, is pictured holding aloft the European Cup.
If the club now struggles to compete with Europe's elite teams it remains al a powerful force in the Dutch league. Under the guidance of Frank de Boer, a veteran of the '95 team, it continues to win domestic titles.
Alongside De Boer is another member of the class of '95. Dennis Bergkamp was a product of Ajax's youth academy who made the move abroad -- to Inter Milan. After a difficult time in Italy, Bergkamp joined Arsenal and excelled. Now assistant manager to De Boer, Bergkamp is renowned and revered as one of Arsenal's greatest ever players.
Belgium's Jan Vertonghen made his debut for Dutch champions Ajax in 2006. Before moving to English Premier League club Spurs, the Belgian studied sport marketing at the Johan Cruyff University in between his training and matches.
The school over looks the first-team training pitch and the club's stadium, the Amsterdam Arena -- inspiring a new generation to emulate their heroes.
Ajax play their home games at the Amsterdam ArenA.
Given the Netherlands' exit from Euro 2016, perhaps the Dutch will be hoping that Ajax's school might play a part in reviving the fortunes of their national team.
Courage
While he believes there are managers continuing his father's legacy, Jordi Cruyff acknowledges that it isn't easy to be a pioneer.
"I think you need to come with fresh, new ideas. I think you have to have courage above all -- 100% commitment to your own convictions and your own idea, to know how to convince the rest that your idea is the right way.
"Obviously he had his ideas and he opened up a way of thinking. But in the end, every successful coach has added something of their own -- their own personality and their own vision."
Total Football has not been forsaken, Jordi Cruyff contends -- merely updated.
"Maybe not everything that my father liked is agreed upon by all the coaches. Everybody adds their own part of personality to a certain football idea. I just think that every day there is an evolution."
Guardiola (L) poses for a photograph with former Dutch football player and manager Jordi Cruyff.
Total Football reconfigured
That evolution -- at once everlasting and based on a single ideal -- is embodied in the teams of Guardiola as he's moved from Catalonia and Bavaria to a new challenge in the north of England.
"I realized that in England they still play 11 vs. 11 as well. One ball," quips Guardiola, slipping into aphorism mode in a manner reminiscent of Germany's 1954 World Cup winning coach Sepp Herberger.
"The pitch is sometimes smaller in some places but it's the same -- why should we change?
"At the end of the day, the coaches and managers adapt to the quality of their own players. My players now are completely different to in Munich and Barcelona, but the principles -- the fundamentals -- are the same."
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It's a moment that makes Jordi Cruyff smile.
"If my father had to single out somebody now that's continuing Total Football, you just have to look beside me."