Saturday's game against Real Madrid will be Barcelona's first match since the death of Johan Cruyff on March 24, and there will be "huge expectations over how modern football's most-dominant team marks the great Dutchman's immense part in their story," according to Lee Roden of ESPN. To start with, 90,000 fans will hold up cards before kickoff forming the message "Gracies, Johan" -- Thanks, Johan. For someone whose influence is "so deep-rooted at Barcelona, there is a clear feeling that something more should be done to commemorate him in the long-term." The "natural next step" would be to rename the entire stadium after him -- "Estadi Johan Cruyff, if you will." This would "also present problems." The club is about to start major rebuilding work on its stadium, and "almost half" of the expected €400M ($456M) cost of the new facilities "are supposed to be footed by sponsors, including the sale of naming rights." Another alternative "will likely need to be found," and there is one compromise that could "not only satisfy supporters who want to commemorate Cruyff permanently, but also adequately reflect his legacy at the club." Could Barcelona name the Nou Miniestadi after Cruyff? It would be a "fitting gesture, arguably even more adequate than attaching his name to the first team's ground." After all, it is at the smaller stadium where the Barça "players of tomorrow will be formed according to a methodology first put in place at the club by Cruyff in the 1980s" (ESPN, 3/30).
