Total football (Dutch: totaalvoetbal) is a tactical system in association football in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. Early proponents of the system were the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s, the Argentine side "La Maquina" of River Plate in the 1940s, the Golden Team of Hungary in the 1950s, English team Burnley in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and Brazilian side Santos in the 1960s. It was made popular by Dutch club Ajax in the early 1970s and the Netherlands national football team at the 1974 FIFA World Cup.
