Those are words of Thierry Henry - a player who has played with such legends as Zidane and Del Piero, to mention just a few. Henry's statement surely holds the truth: Dennis Bergkamp has been regarded as the greatest foreign player ever in the English game. One could even say he is one of the classiest strikers ever to grace the game.
Bergkamp was essential in the creation of the most cosmopolitan and progressive side in the Premiership - he was not signed by current Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, but was the epitome of the side Wenger created - stylish, technical and professional.
One runs out of superlatives in describing Bergkamp as a player: his perfect touch, passing of incredible vision, sublime finishing, out of this world skills, not to mention selflessness; Dennis always thought what was the best for the team, not for himself. But there has always been so much more to Bergkamp than just goalscoring ability and he has plenty of that as his ratio of one goal in two and a half games testifies. The way Bergkamp could kill a team with one pass was just amazing; he would sometimes do things out of nowhere. The epitome of this was the assist he gave to Freddie Ljungberg in the Champions League against Juventus at Highbury - he dribbled past three defenders and had the vision to not only see Freddie, but to find him aswell. Dennis had also the ability to destroy any team on his day and overall class crucial to win closely-fought games against top opposition. Think of that unforgettable hat-trick against Leicester in 1997, his sensational late winner against Argentina the following year or the improbable goal against Newcastle in 2002. Those are just a few among so many other memorable goals scored by the non-flying Dutchman.
Bergkamp retired after the Champions League final against Barcelona in the 17th of May 2006, bringing the curtain down on a 20-year footballing life that has been full of wonderful goals and silver-lined with trophies. Overall, he played over 700 times for club and country, scoring 271 goals and certainly making at least as many.
Arsène Wenger summed up Bergkamp's uniqueness after the win over West Bromwich in Spring 2006, one of Bergkamp's final professional matches:
Intelligence and class. Class is of course, most of the time linked to what you can do with the ball, but the intelligence makes you use the technique in an efficient way. What he (Bergkamp) does, there's always a head and always a brain. And his technique allows him to do what he sees, and what he decides to do. On that day, Bergkamp passed a goal and made another with his trademark style.
This site is a fan tribute to a player who you can't compare with anyone. Bergkamp was a one-off, a classic number 10 but demonstrably unique.
There was, and will ever be only one Dennis Bergkamp.
The Arsenal historyDennis Bergkamp played his best football in the 1997/98 season. The 29-year-old (at the moment) Dutchman became the most dominating player in English Premier League. He led Arsenal into the Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners, although Bergkamp was injured during the last few games, including the cup final on Wembley. He made a sensational start for the Gunners as they mounted an impressive challenge to Manchester United's supremacy in the title race.
Dennis got many awards along the way to the double: He was voted 'Player Of The Year' by his collegues, the biggest personal award a player can get in the UK. He also ended third in the voting for 'FIFA player of the year'. In September, Dennis was named player of the month for the second time, the first player to win the award in consecutive months. Before that, BBC's Match of the Day programme had voted his strikes first, second and third in their goal of the month, a feat unaqualled by any other player in the 25-year history of the competition.
During the first half of the 1997/98 season, I played what must be the best football of my career. Everything I was trying seemed to work, my body felt fine and everything went for me. I was on form and it was a great feeling. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger agreed he was simply the best:
He scores his goals from outside the penalty box like a midfielder, and also he needs fewer touches on the ball to score. Sometimes just one, when others need two or three. He is the peak of his career and I don't think there's anybody better in the world. But by the winter, thanks to a series of suspensions and a foot injury, the spark had gone, despite his third place in the FIFA 1997 World Player of the Year awards, having earlier been named fourth-best European. Some over-exaggerated diving and a petulant elbow that saw him sent off in March did little for his standing and earned him a second three-match ban just as Arsenal were finding their form. Bergkamp himself has repeatedly claimed he is being targeted by referees and defenders in England.
Nonetheless in spring he returned to his most bewitching form to help the Gunners overhaul United in the Premier League title run-in. He ended the 1997/98 season as he started - in fantastic form.
He was very happy since he went to play in the Premiership after playing in the Netherlands and Italy.
England is a country where they play attacking football and people want to see that rather than games that end in a draw. You get space and that suits my game and I am very pleased with the way things are going. I am thinking of finishing my career in England. It suits my game and I feel fine. I am not thinking of playing in any other country or for any other team at the moment. Then there was the World Cup in France. At the beginning of the tournament Dennis had a knee injury but he got over it and got back his good form. Bergkamp scored three important goals against South Korea, Yuogoslavia and Argentina and also assisted three goals.
We went out to Brazil again, this time in the semi finals, and that was a little bitter. But I feel it was a wonderful experience for me and of course I scored that goal against Argentina, Bergkamp commented on his amazing goal. Sharp and clever Bergkamp showed that the success in Arsenal wasn't luck. Because in France there wasn't very long distances between the venues of the matches Dennis didn't even suffer his fear of flying. Now there was no doubt that he was a world class goalscorer.
The following season at Arsenal wasn't so great. At the beginning of the season Bergkamp was most of the time injured and suffered badly from the demands of the World Cup finals during the previous summer. A subsequent back injury caused him to miss a number of matches during the first half of the campaign. But once he returned to full fitness, he struck up a good understanding with his main strike-partner Nicolas Anelka and his precision passing created a number of goals for other team mates as well. When Bergkamp found his best form again, Arsenal caught up Man United and there was a superb title race again, like in the double season.
After losing the FA Cup semi-final to Man Utd the Dutch striker was devastated after missing the last-minute penalty that would have secured a Wembley place for the current Cup holders and could not bring himself to talk about the miss. But Peter Schmeichel's brilliant save acted as an inspiration for United who won the epic semi-final replay with a sensational individual goal from Ryan Giggs in extra time.
If I had scored that, Manchester United would not have gone to Wembley for the FA Cup Final and so could not have won the treble. Maybe they would have won nothing - who knows? Then missing the last few games because of injury, the Dutchman returned at the crucial moment and produced two wonderful goal-making passes against Tottenham. Bergy was in a different class to any Spurs outfield player and, indeed, to most of his own team-mates. Well-deserved, he was chosen as Man of the Match. But bitterly, in the next match Jimmy Hasselbaink scored the winner to Leeds - One-nil. Because of Man Utd's draw with Blackburn the title was out of Arsenal's hands, but The Gunners fighted a win from Aston Villa. Now United had to draw, but Spurs couldn't stop them: 2-1 to United. No glory, but a memorable season for ever.
The 1999-2000 season was just very frustrating. We went out of the Champions' League at the first stage after losing to Fiorentina. We missed a penalty in a crucial match in that competition and then ended up going out of the FA Cup, Worthington Cup and losing the UEFA Cup Final through penalty shoot-outs, Dennis sealed up the next season.
Before Euro 2000, Bergkamp said that he would retire at international level after this home tournament. So this was his last chance to win something with the Netherlands. "Oranje" looked a bit uncertain at the group stage but still won the "group of death". All seemed to go well after the 6-1 - demolition over Yugoslavia. In the semi-finals the opponent was very defensive Italy, and despite the Netherlands' total possession the game ended goalless even after extra-time. Italy won the penalty shoot-out and reached the final, leaving the Netherlands crying for the five missed penalties. Bergkamp didn't score any goals during the tournament but, again, showed his incerdible insights and passed many goals. Too bad that his great era with the Oranges didn't end like it should have.
Bergkamp released a statement after the tournament:
After last night's bitter disappointment, I've decided to hang up my international boots. I'm pretty tired of the relentless flow of games to be honest. With all the domestic competitions we play and the challenge of the Champions' League football I have enough games to play, enough travelling to do. I want to spend more time with my family, but you never know what the future might hold. If I get the itch to come back at any time in the next few months, I'll let the new coach know. That itch never came.
So how do I sum up Euro 2000? I really am lost for words. It's been a pretty rough ending to the tournament for us and I'm not able to give any proper assessment of it at all. So many parts of Euro 2000 were enjoyable and I think we could have done so much better as a team. It's a puzzle that we couldn't fulfil that promise. Frank Rijkaard quitting is very sad, but it's very hard to know what to say about it because we're all feeling so empty. Off the PitchDennis is totally different off the pitch, once people know him.
I think I'm quite emotional. What I don't show on the pitch when I score a goal. I'm a different person in private. Bergkamp's inner feelings are clearly something for his wife, Henrita, and his three childs, Estelle, Mitchel and Yasmin, alone. Dennis first met Henrita in Spain when he was 21. A few years later, they got married and their first child, Estelle, was born when Dennis was 26. He became a father for the second time in September 1998 when Henrita got a boy, Mitchel, and the second girl, Yasmin, was born in April 2002. While Bergkamp was still a professional footballer he demured at the suggestion that his profession was a main topic of conversation round the dinner table.
The other things in life are very important to me as well, so we talk more about them than about football. i.e. family matters and my hobbies such as tennis and golf. Dennis has three brothers who have all played Dutch amateur soccer. |
發表於 2007-9-15 12:14 PM
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