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Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp (born May 10, 1969 in Amsterdam) is a retired
Dutch professional footballer. He played for Ajax Amsterdam, Internazionale,
Arsenal F.C and the Netherlands national football team; he spent the final
11 years of his career playing for Arsenal. Bergkamp played most of his best
games as a support striker, where his tactical awareness and deft passes
made him a great exponent of the game from the "hole".
His parents, who were football fanatics, named him after Manchester City,
Manchester United and Scotland striker Denis Law, though they altered the
spelling of the name. The Dutch authorities decided that Denis was too
similar to "Denise", so Bergkamp's parents settled for Dennis. Curiously,
the authorities saw no problem with his middle name, "Maria".
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Bergkamp was brought up through Ajax Amsterdam's famous youth system,
joining the club at age 12. He was given his professional debut by coach
Johann Cruyff on December 14, 1986 against Roda JC, and went on to make 14
appearances that season. He played as a substitute in the 1987 European Cup
Winners Cup final against Lokomotive Leipzig, which Ajax won.
The following season, Bergkamp became a regular for Ajax, winning the Dutch
league in 1990, the UEFA Cup in 1992 and the KNVB Cup in 1993. From 1991 to
1993 Bergkamp was top Dutch scorer, and he was voted "Player of the Year" in
1992 and 1993. In all, Bergkamp scored 122 goals in 239 games for his
hometown club.
In the summer of 1993, Bergkamp and his Ajax team-mate Wim Jonk were signed
by Internazionale of Milan . However, his time in Italy was less successful.
Although he won a second UEFA Cup in 1994, he found it hard to adapt to the
Italian defensive style of play, scoring just 11 times in 50 appearances.
Bergkamp's poor form was not helped by his frosty relationship with the
Italian press, and indeed some of his teammates. However, the fans did take
to calling him "Beavis" due to his perceived resemblance to Beavis of Beavis
and Butthead fame.
After two unhappy seasons at Inter, Bergkamp was signed by Arsenal boss
Bruce Rioch in June 1995 for £7.5m. Bergkamp made his debut against
Middlesbrough in August 1995 but had to adapt to the English style of play,
and it took him eight games before he managed to score his first goal,
against Southampton. Slowly but surely, Bergkamp's stature grew, playing as
a forward behind the main striker, Ian Wright, with whom he formed an
effective partnership. Bergkamp has been regarded by many football critics
such as Alan Hansen as being the greatest foreign player to grace the
English game.
Bergkamp hit his best form for Arsenal after the arrival of Arsène Wenger in
September 1996. Arsenal won a Premiership and FA Cup double in the 1997-8
season (although Bergkamp missed the cup final with an injury), and Bergkamp
was voted PFA Player of the Year. In September 1997 he became the first and
so far only player to have come first, second and third in Match of the
Day's 'Goal of the Month' competition. He scored 16 times that season, as
well as being involved in setting up many more. At the end of that same
season, he helped the Netherlands to a fourth-place finish at the 1998 World
Cup.
While his form since has not matched the spectacle of that season, Bergkamp
continued to be a regular in the Arsenal team. He won the double again in
2002, the FA Cup in 2003 and the Premiership for a third time in 2004. The
club's domestic success has not been matched in European competition, the
closest to winners' medals coming when they lost the 2000 UEFA Cup final to
Galatasaray on penalties and the 2006 Champions League final to Barcelona
(when Bergkamp travelled overland to Paris for his competitive farewell,
only to be an unused substitute.)
Bergkamp's arrival at Arsenal was significant, not only as he was one of the
first world-class foreign players to join an English club since the lifting
of the Heysel ban in 1991, but also because he was a major contributor to
the club's return to success after the stagnation of the mid-1990s. It has
been suggested that his signing, in which Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein
was the major mover, has been the most significant in Arsenal's history,
helping to attract other top-class players to the club.
In 2005, due to Arsenal's reluctance in offering him a new deal, there was
speculation that Bergkamp would leave the club, and possibly football
altogether. Bergkamp had said he would retire from football if not offered a
new contract with Arsenal for the 2005-06 campaign, despite interest from
his former club Ajax. Following Arsenal's penalty shootout victory over
Manchester United in the FA Cup Final in Cardiff though, it was revealed he
would sign a one-year contract extension, keeping him at the London club for
their final season at the Arsenal Stadium at Highbury.
To commemorate Bergkamp's time at Arsenal, on April 15, 2006 Arsenal titled
their home match against West Bromwich Albion as "Dennis Bergkamp Day".
Bergkamp came on as a substitute, setting up Robert Pirès goal and scoring a
curler himself as Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners. Bergkamp scored 121 goals for
Arsenal in 424 appearances. His first 100 goals can be seen on the
Centurions DVD along with 100 goals by Thierry Henry.
Bergkamp has officially retired from competitive football after the 2006
Champions League final game against Barcelona on May 17, 2006. The last game
he played in Arsenal colour coincide with the last game at Highbury, against
Wigan Athletic on May 7, 2006.
Bergkamp will have the honour of being the focus of the first match at
Arsenal's new ground, the Emirates Stadium. On 22 July 2006, a testimonial
will be played in his honour at the new stadium, with Arsenal playing his
old club Ajax.[1]
Bergkamp made his international debut for the Netherlands in 1990 against
Italy. His first major tournament was Euro 92, where the Dutch were
defending champions. Bergkamp impressed (catching the eye of Inter, who
would later sign him), but the Dutch lost on penalties in the semi-finals.
Bergkamp also impressed in the 1994 World Cup, playing in all of his side's
matches, scoring a spectacular goal against Brazil, a match the Dutch
ultimately lost 3-2. Holland disappointed in Euro 96, with the squad riven
by in-fighting, although Bergkamp still scored once, and set up Patrick
Kluivert's consolatory goal against England that got the side into the
quarter-finals.
In the 1998 World Cup, Bergkamp scored three times, the most memorable of
which being the winning goal in the final minute of the quarter-final
against Argentina. Bergkamp took a leaping first touch to control a long
60-yard aerial pass from Frank de Boer, reverse-flicked the ball past
Argentine defender Roberto Ayala, and finally finished by firing a
half-volley past the keeper at a tight angle from the right. With three
intelligent right-footed touches in a matter of seconds, he was able to turn
the game and send his national squad into the semifinal round. This goal was
widely regarded as one of the best of the tournament and remains as one of
the greatest goals scored in World Cup history for its timeliness and manner
of execution.
The Netherlands joint-hosted Euro 2000 and were one of the favourites. After
progressing through the "group of death", they lost on penalties to Italy in
the semi-finals. Bergkamp didn't score at all during the tournament but
still played an important role. After the defeat, Bergkamp announced his
retirement from international football, because the next major tournament,
the 2002 World Cup, would be played in Japan and South Korea and Bergkamp's
aviophobia (see below) would prevent him from travelling there. He did not
play the qualification matches, since he thought that it would be unfair to
do so; the Netherlands ended up not qualifying at all.
He ended his international career first on the all-time list of goal scorers
for the Dutch national team, with 37 goals in 79 games. His record has since
been passed by Patrick Kluivert.
Bergkamp is a striker who stands out more because of the quality of his
goals than the quantity. His exceptional calm and control in creating
scoring chances has earned him the nickname "The Iceman". Bergkamp has
stated that he usually visualizes exactly how he will enact his goal even
before the chance comes, so that by then he can do so without looking. Many
of the forward's goals can be cited as illustrations of this, but perhaps
the two best known examples are the 2002 Premiership Goal of the Season,
scored against Newcastle United on March 2, 2002 and his game winning goal
for the Netherlands against Argentina in the quarterfinal round of the 1998
World Cup. The goal against Newcastle was voted by the FA Premier League as
the second greatest goal of the league's first ten seasons, after David
Beckham's lob against Wimbledon in 1996.
Both of these goals showcased the best traits of Dennis Bergkamp the
striker: his fine ball control, his sublime first touch, his ability to go
past defences through quick thinking and his preference to score (or to set
up a goal) from outside the box. Further discussion of the 2002 goal is
covered on BBC Sport's website here, and the goal against Argentina can be
found in the video archives on the official FIFA World Cup website here.
While it has been wrongly reported in a section of the media that he is a
Spurs fan, Bergkamp has time and again denied the charges but has admitted
to idolizing Glenn Hoddle since childhood."Maybe I was...maybe I am, a
little different from other players. They will tell you that Pele, Maradona,
Cruyff are their idols and I will say Glenn Hoddle. Main thing was that I
was a big fan of Glenn Hoddle. When you wanted to see Hoddle play you
watched Tottenham. People often assume I'm a Spurs fan but it's not true. I
was a fan of Glenn Hoddle, not of Spurs", Bergkamp says.
In Brilliant Orange (ISBN 0747553106), David Winner's analysis of the way in
which Dutch football and Dutch culture blend, the sculptor Jeroen Henneman
analyzes the effect of Dennis Bergkamp's passes and how he can split a
defence: "It's a miracle. One moment the pitch is crowded and narrow.
Suddenly it is huge and wide."
Bergkamp's close control and skill in passing the ball has put him in very
high regard by Arsenal's fans, who have given him the nickname "God". Other
nicknames given to him by fans included "Dennis the Menace", "the Dutch
Master", "Iceman", "Bergy" and "Beavis".
"If Ryan Giggs is worth 20 million, Dennis Bergkamp is worth 100 million."
Marco Van Basten
Arsène Wenger also said about him after Arsenal's 3-1 win over West Bromwich
Albion (April 16, 2006) that he had, "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. It's like
somebody who has a big vocabulary but he doesn't say intelligent words, and
somebody who has a big vocabulary but he can talk intelligently, and that's
what Dennis is all about. What he 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."
He is often considered by critics and fans to be one of the three greatest
Dutch Footballers of all-time alongside Johann Cruyff and Marco van Basten |
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