This season you will see a new logo on the first-team players’ shirts.
TOVO is short for Totaal Voetbaal – (Total Football in English) is a tactical and strategic football concept popularized by the Netherlands national football team, particularly during the early 1970s. It was also associated with the Dutch club Ajax and its manager Rinus Michels. The concept emphasizes a highly fluid and adaptable style of play where players are not confined to specific positions and roles but instead interchange positions dynamically throughout the game.
The style has become synonymous with Dutch and Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff and the TOVO academy is run by his son-in-law Todd Beane.
Johan Cruyff
Whenever there is a conversation about the most prodigious football players of all time, the name of Johan Cruyff is sure to come up. The legendary Dutchman was perhaps best known as the on-field conductor of the “Total Football” philosophy, which took the football world by storm in the early 70s. In addition to that, he won the Ballon d’Or three times and was voted European Player of the Century by the IFFHS in 1999.
Basic facts
Birth: 1947
Death: 2016
Country: Netherlands
Position: Forward
Clubs
Ajax (1964–1973)
Barcelona (1973–1978)
Los Angeles Aztecs (1979–1980)
Washington Diplomats (1980–1981)
Levante (1981)
Ajax (1981–1983)
Feyenoord (1983–1984)
Stats
Club football: 514 matches, 290 goals
National team: 48 matches, 33 goals
Read more from FootballHistory.org here
A football jersey as a tribute to the great Ajax of the 70’s and Johan Cruijff. None less than Frank Rijkaard, Sjaak Swart and Jordi Cruijff were present at the presentation of the special jersey with number 14 on August 14th 2023. You can see more on that here.
Head Coach at Mousehole Andy Graham explains the link between Mousehole AFC and the TOVO Academy in Sitges:
The TOVO link has been in the background at Mousehole since 2017 when I first went to Spain to complete two coaching courses. I have been back to Sitges every year since to continue learning and over that period have become good friends with Todd Beane, the founder. We have discussed how we can help each other on a number of occasions but following our promotion we agreed that initially TOVO would sponsor two of our coaches to complete their online learning modules and one coach to go to Spain in January 2024. Going forward I am sure the relationship will evolve but at present the support of our youth coaches is just the start.
Pablo Woolls-Blanco sat down with Todd and Andy on a Zoom call to discuss the project. Watch the video here:
