Dennis Bergkamp : Past, present and future
Dennis Bergkamp. Where do I start? technician, perfectionist, genius, elegant? all of the above?
Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 10th, 1969, Dennis is now married to Henrita Ruizendaal, with 3 daughters, Estelle, Deborah & Yasmin, and a son, Mitchel.
Standing at 183cm, 6’0 ft, the Dutchman is a legend in football. An icon, a role model in which young kids of today who aspire to be at the level Dennis was at for so many years, can watch the way he played, the way he thought, the way he moved and glided across a pitch, seemingly effortless, to you and I. I could sit here and talk about Dennis’s career at Arsenal and how much Arsenal fans like you and I respect the man and have a great urge to want to see him back at Arsenal, but I want to give a little background on Dennis beforehand.
It’s no secret that he admired the style of play that Glenn Hoddle played at Tottenham (I know right, he admired a Spurs player!), his passing ability, his technique and focus on being a perfectionist. But this helped Dennis and he learnt from watching it. He used to watch the FA cup final games on his TV with his brothers whilst they were all growing up, and afterwards they’d immediately grab a ball, run outside and have a kick about.
From just a very young age, Dennis was finding any place he could to kick a ball about, be that the corridor of the building he was living in, on the pavement, on the grass that was guarded by a bulky man with his dog, that is, of course, as soon as the guard left, or even kicking a ball against a brick wall and setting himself a goal – hit a certain block in a certain way, ‘make the ball come back to you and control it’, if he didn't succeed, he’d try again and again.
From a young age Dennis always wanted to perfect his touch and control of the ball, whether he was kicking the ball against a tire of a car, trying not to set off the alarm or just against a wall, nothing was perfect until it was perfect in the eyes of Dennis.
In his book, ‘Stillness and ‘Speed’, he says, whilst looking on at where the building he grew up in and the wall that he learnt to perfect his touch on, he says, “it’s fair to say I had a perfect childhood here.”
There will be many blogs out there on the childhood of Dennis, so I want to skip to the football, the apple of Dennis’ eye, the real reason I’m writing this article.
At the age of 11, Dennis was introduced to the Ajax youth system after playing in the lower leagues, strutting his ‘thaang’ (sorry about that..) and impressing the scouting network at Ajax. In his book he remembers going into school and everyone would love seeing him around because he was the kid that was playing for Ajax’s academy, the kid everyone wanted to be friends with.
He made his professional debut for Ajax on the 14th of December, 1986 against Roda JC at the De Meer stadium in Amsterdam. Just a year after that unique achievement in his young career, he was called up to the international side after a storming season with Ajax in his first year, to play a game against Italy on the 26th of September, 1990 at La Favorita, Palermo. He went on to play 79 games and score 37 goals on the international stage over 10 years.
In his long, career defining time at Ajax, a total of 7 years, he played a total of 185 games, scoring a scorching 103 goals, before joining Inter Milan in 1993 for £12million.
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| Dennis in his Ajax years |
He made his debut for Inter Milan on the 29th of August, 1993, against Reggiana at the San Siro stadium in Milan.
Italian football teams at the time would set up with a defensive mentality, wanting to go into a game, score one goal and defend their lead to assure themselves of the 3 points. Dennis didn't like the idea of playing his football like that, before he joined Inter, he was promised changes. Changes to the style of play, personnel and mentality. This didn't happen, the Italian giants were defiant and determined to stick to their mentality and the way they played their football. At the time, the Italian team were playing with two strikers, Dennis Bergkamp and Ruben Sosa, which is an attacking set-up that Dennis simply wasn't used to and hadn't played before with Ajax. Dennis was a number 10, he’d create chances for those around him as well as scoring chances himself with his impeccable touch and skill.
Dennis would often exclude himself from social gatherings that the Inter Milan team would have, whether a few of them would go out for a meal or go and do some other sport in their spare time, Dennis would rather stay at home with his partner, Henrita Ruizendaal. He was, and still is, a shy and conservative man and likes to keep himself to himself.
Two years had passed since he joined Inter, and more European clubs were wanting his signature. That’s when Arsenal came knocking, and before long he signed on the dotted line for The Gunners on the 20th of June, 1995 for a fee of £7,5million.
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| Dennis at Inter Milan |
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| Signing for Arsenal FC |
His first Arsenal hat-trick came in a game against Leicester City in the Premier League on the 27th of August, just 7 days after he made his debut. Pretty good signing, eh?
Dennis Bergkamp was branded an important signing for Arsenal at the time by some people, whilst other thought it was a mistake and that he wouldn't adapt to London life, just like he couldn't adapt to the Italian culture or the football Inter Milan were playing. Everybody has seen the classic picture of a newspaper article in which it featured quotes from none other than Stuart Pearce, who said Bergkamp was a ‘waste of money’ and that ‘signing Dennis and David Platt at the same time is a massive gamble on Arsenal’s part. I’m not convinced it will pay off.”
But doubters were well and truly proven wrong through Bergkamp’s long Arsenal career as he spanned a total of 11 years, playing a staggering 411 games and scoring an incredible 120 goals.
In the eyes of many, especially Arsenal fans, Dennis can do no wrong, and he certainly proves that on and off the pitch. His classy way of playing the beautiful, his impeccable touch of the ball, his ability to pick out a pass that no other mere mortal would ever be able to even think of let alone pull off. You could say Dennis was the perfect player. A player with the ability on and off the pitch to dazzle everyone listening to him speak.
Before Dennis retired from football and left Arsenal, he had a testimonial match at the Emirates Stadium. The first and last ever game that Dennis would ever play in the new home of Arsenal after having the iconic ground Highbury for many years, where Dennis played and loved his football with his time at Arsenal, pleasing his team-mates, managers, fans, opposition (even though they had to play against him, they still admired him!).
When Dennis had his testimonial match it was a sad day for all involved in football, especially at The Arsenal. The stadium was alive, with the colours of the Arsenal, red and white beaming across the ground thanks to the humble support of all involved on that day. All eyes were on Dennis, but there were many other iconic football players playing that day, the likes of Ian Wright, Arsenal’s second all time goalscorer, Thierry Henry, Arsenal’s all time record goalscorer, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, the man who won Arsenal their last trophy in the FA cup final in 2005 against Manchester United, Marc Overmars, Kanu, Lee Dixon and Steve Bould, the right hand man to Mr. Wenger, all playing in Arsenal colours.
Then there were the Ajax players, some iconic ex-players such as Johan Cruyff, Ronald de Boer, Marco Van Basten and Rijkaard. All players that Dennis had played with in his formidable career at either Ajax, Inter Milan, Holland, or indeed The Arsenal.
But the spotlight was taken off of Bergkamp for a brief period of time in the game as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the first goal of the game to make it 1-0 to Ajax, but soon after, the leading goalscorer for Arsenal, Thierry Henry converted a cross from Lee Dixon to give Arsenal hope of making the day better for Bergkamp.
It didn’t take long for Ajax to come on the attack again and then be awarded a penalty, which Ronald de Boer fired over the bar, before Kanu gave Arsenal the lead and Bergkamp his dream game to mark the end of a magnificent career.
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| Dennis Bergkamp being paraded around the Emirates stadium |
The day came that Bergkamp hung up his boots and stepped away from the green grass of football pitches for good. Or so he thought. He retired from football and was determined to spend his days with his family and not get into coaching, and declining a role as a scout at Arsenal. In April 2008, Dennis came back to the idea of coaching, as he took a fast-track coaching diploma for formal Dutch international footballers, and he took up a trainee coaching role at Ajax.
Upon succeeding in that diploma, Dennis took up a role along side Johan Neeskens, a former Ajax and Barcelona player, as the assistant to the brand new Netherlands B team on the date of 26th of October, 2008. In that year and through to 2009, Dennis returned to Ajax as a coach for the U12 youth team. But less that 2 years later, Ajax announced the appointment of Frank De Boer as their new first team manager, and Bergkamp’s role at the club moved up a level, as he was then appointed assistant manager to Fred Grim for the U19 youth team. Again, not long after that appointment, Dennis was then moved up in the ranks at Ajax, as he was appointed assistant manager for the first team for Frank De Boer in August, 2011.
So what’s next for Dennis? A managerial role at Ajax? to stay on as assistant for the unforeseeable future? nobody but Dennis himself knows, but one thing we do know, is that Arsenal would welcome him with open arms in a coaching role at the Emirates stadium and would help him flourish and become one of the best coaches in the business.
Manger at Arsenal after Wenger? Henry his assistant? Henry to be manager? Dennis to be his assistant? so many questions, with no answers. I honestly can’t see Thierry Henry as a manager. A coach, and a damn good one, yes, but a manager? I think Denis Bergkamp would be more suited to the role and title of ‘manager’ of a team than Thierry. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Thierry back at Arsenal in some form of coaching role, but in m eyes, Dennis is the man for the job, dare I say it, when the day comes that Arsene Wenger steps down and pursues a different role within Arsenal Football Club.
What about you? what do you think? does Dennis have what it takes to become manager at Arsenal in the future? does Thierry Henry have what it takes? a coaching role for them both?
I took to Twitter to ask my followers what they thought of the idea of Dennis Bergkamp having a managerial status at Arsenal in the future, and the responses I received were mostly in favour of the idea of Dennis becoming a manager at Arsenal in the future.
@adh_krishna said: “Yeah sure, Henry should coordinate with him.”
@GoonerUpdates said: “Yeah, either him or Henry.” and: “Because they’re familiar with the club and are well respected by the fans.“
@FazeelTheGooner said: “Yes. He has a footballing brain. He’s a genius.”
@gooner1947 said: “not sure respect is enough though. Fans are fickle.”
@Vinny19671 said: “X Pros do not naturally make good managers & can be a risk.Except for DB10. Because he can do anything”
And @futbolking10 an Arsenal fan who certainly wants Henry back at Arsenal said “King Henry!”
I hope that one day we will indeed see Dennis Bergkamp or Thierry Henry back at Arsenal, but for now, we have arguably the best manager in the league, and in good or tough times, we all need to get behind him, because once he’s gone, he will be sorely missed, and will no doubt leave a huge hole in Arsenal Football Club.
Written by our new writer Avalon @AvalonAFC
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