MICHAEL LAUDRUP

"I called my father-in-law from the Virgin Islands to ask the score in the Euro 92 Final. It wouldn't have been fair if I'd played that game"

- Interview Arthur Renard

The day has only just begun, early in the morning at a boutique hotel in central London, but Michael Laudrup is sat in front of FourFourTwo, animatedly explaining the mechanisms behind Barcelona's Dream Team of the '80s and '90s.

The playmaker helped the club lift its first European Cup, but it was the total football style of Johan Cruyff's side that captured the world’s imagination.

“I’d start as a number nine, then drop back into midfield to receive the ball between the lines,” Laudrup says. “Opposition defenders usually stayed deep, which gave me space. From there, I could feed Txiki Begiristain, Jose Mari Bakero and Hristo Stoichkov, making intelligent runs through the defence.”

Sitting in a plush armchair, the Dane is using his hands to illustrate how those moves unfolded - how through balls and no-look passes created countless dangerous situations. “We scored so many goals that way,” the 61-year-old enthuses.

Later, he’d showcase the same skills at Real Madrid - bagging a fifth consecutive La Liga title, after four in a row with Barça. Remarkably, he’s loved by fans of both El Clasico rivals.

Laudrup was also key to the Danish Dynamite national team born in the mid-1980s - even if he famously decided to miss his country’s successful Euro 92 campaign. A managerial career followed, winning the League Cup with Swansea in 2013, but it all began back in Copenhagen, in a close-knit football family...

You and your younger brother Brian grew up to become two of the world's best players. As children, was it always clear how special you were on the pitch?

Nathan Gent, via Facebook