Johan Cruyff, a soccer star who brought a smile to the face of anyone who watched him play, died Thursday, at the age of 68.

Family spokeswoman Carole Thate said Mr. Cruyff died in Barcelona after a five-month battle with lung cancer.

Ranked alongside such global stars as Pele, Diego Maradona, Franz Beckenbauer, and Lionel Messi, Mr. Cruyff was one of the best players of all time.

He learned his trade at Ajax Amsterdam before joining the great Barcelona, and played 48 times for the Netherlands, scoring 33 goals.

Mr. Cruyff was more famous for his silky skills than soccer statistics and was the embodiment of ‘‘Total Football,’’ a soccer philosophy that embraced high-speed skills and the ability to turn defense into attack in a flash.

Mr. Cruyff won the European Cup three times with Ajax as a player and once with Barcelona as a coach. He was European player of the year three times and, in 1999, was named Europe’s best player of the 20th century.

Though a World Cup title eluded him, he was the pivotal figure on the 1974 Netherlands team that electrified the sport with its ‘‘Total Football’’ tactics, with players constantly interchanging roles. The tactics influenced the game worldwide, bringing fresh life to a sport that became stuck in a defensive mindset.

‘‘Football has lost a man who did more to make the beautiful game beautiful than anyone in history,’’ said former England striker Gary Lineker, who played under Mr. Cruyff at Barcelona.

Mr. Cruyff smoked cigarettes most of his life and finally quit after undergoing an emergency heart bypass operation in 1991. After more heart trouble in 1997, he vowed never to coach again, though he remained an outspoken soccer critic and analyst.

On the field, Mr. Cruyff’s wiry frame housed surprising athletic talent, unpredictable bursts of speed and agility, and precise ball-control that allowed him to trick opponents, ghosting around them with ease. His genius lay in his instinctive feel for seeing how a move would develop before it actually began.

‘‘Speed and insight are often confused,’’ he said. ‘‘When I start running before everybody else, I appear faster.’’ That speed and anticipation also gave him an unmatched grace under duress.

‘‘A symbol of elegant play. An inspiration,’’ FIFA president Gianni Infantino said.

He scored 392 times in 520 games over a 19-year playing career.

But his influence reached far beyond creating goals, thanks to his qualities as a leader, thinker, and speaker. With a brash Amsterdam accent, he put across his views about soccer and everything surrounding the game with irresistible force.

His comments became oft-quoted classics: ‘‘Every disadvantage has its advantage.’’

As a coach he had 242 victories in 387 matches, with 75 draws and 70 losses.

Mr. Cruyff was heavily involved in tactics from the start of his career. Along with Rinus Michels, his coach at Ajax and Barcelona, he helped develop Total Football.

Under the strategy, players pass the ball frequently to seek advantage, and switch positions seamlessly to adjust to the flow of play. Latin American admirers referred to the orange-clad Dutch national team as ‘‘The Clockwork Orange.’’

Mr. Cruyff was the personification of a total footballer, playing deep or shallow as the moment required, as deadly from the wings as from his assigned position in the center. He was among the first to see defenders as part of the attack.

With Mr. Cruyff on the field, Ajax won the European Cup for three consecutive years from 1971-73 before he moved to Barcelona midseason in 1973 and led the middle-of-the-table team to its first national title in a decade.

That season was crowned with a 5-0 away win at archrival Real Madrid, so sweet the Catalans still sometimes refer to Mr. Cruyff as ‘‘El Salvador,’’ the savior.

The transfer fee paid by Barcelona was a world record and is seen as a milestone in the commercialization of sport. He was also one of the first soccer players to take on corporate sponsorships.

Even if it is common now for major players to enjoy a golden twilight in the United States, Mr. Cruyff did so almost 40 years ago, when at 32, he joined the Los Angeles Aztecs.

Many fans who watched Mr. Cruyff play as children can still replicate some of his moves, including the ‘‘Cruyff turn,’’ a technique he used for passing defenders by faking toward them, then flicking the ball behind his own other leg in the opposite direction and darting after it.