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Sunshine, Shadows, Post-90s (European) Football: Holland, Dennis Bergkamp (above)
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Soccer: Cruyff's Art Versus Van Gaal's Science
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Football: Van Gaal, Ajax
Sunshine, Shadows, Post 90 (European) Soccer: Netherlands, Individual vs. Collective
Many commentators consider Dennis Bergkamp to be the most typical and iconic Dutch striker of the 1990s, and his core concept, or mindset, on the soccer field, in Bergkamp's own words, is: on the field, my best feature is that I can recognize where the space is, and know how to use it, and even know how to create space for myself. And I know how to utilize it, even how to create space for myself. In his autobiography, Bergkamp explains many details related to the game and his career trajectory, and the word he uses to explain his description is also space. Why was his on-field connection with his Inter teammates weak during his time in the Serie A? Because there was too much space between me and my teammates, and that space was dead space, says Bergkamp, and when asked what was the key to his World Cup goal against Argentina in 1998? Because I took the chance to create the little space, Bergkamp said! As mentioned in the previous article, Dennis Bergkamp started out in the Ajax youth system, and was initially positioned as a pure winger. After being promoted to the first team by Johan Cruyff, he started to excel in the Dutch Eredivisie, and then spent 2 seasons at the uninspiring Inter before moving to the club that made him shine again!
England Premier Soccer League
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. Regarding his role in the
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The complacency of the field, Bergkamp also identifies as being due to the difference in the space available to him, stating that
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The team always plays with 4 defenders, which leaves a lot of space between those defenders and the goalkeeper, especially the 2 center backs, who have to fight against the 2 strikers of the enemy team, so they often can't support each other in defense, which is a perfect backdrop for a striker like him, who has both attacking and assisting skills as well as a lot of vision and imagination!
About his role in the
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Bergkamp said he left Inter because the team didn't fulfill the promises they had made, and that things got better when he arrived in England.
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The combination of players at the time was neither too old and punchless nor too young and inexperienced, and he felt that he could be in the
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Build something new. Sure.
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There were also some eye-openers, such as the fact that the food in the team canteen was neither nutritious nor healthy, and that it wasn't what footballers were supposed to be eating! After training he would often go straight home for dinner, after all, in Holland or Italy, the team was very concerned about the diet of the players, but this was a fantasy for the English team at that time, he remembers that one season ago he went to Sweden with the team to play, and the next day he went to Sweden with the team.
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He had already scheduled a training trip, but when he finished dinner and went for a walk with his wife, he found almost all of his England teammates gathered in the local pub drinking beer! It was only after Arsene Wenger became head coach that the situation gradually improved, and Wenger's footballing philosophy was in line with Bergkamp's, as they both emphasized attacking soccer, ball control, and creativity on the pitch.
Dennis Bergkamp is well known for his great achievements on the pitch and his cold relationship with the media, but also for his lack of desire, or even fear, of flying! In a chapter of his autobiography, he describes his phobia of flying in great detail, saying that during his time at Inter, during countless away matches, he had to look up at the sky with trepidation to see what the weather was like, and to worry about whether the weather would be suitable for him. Is the weather suitable for flying? He didn't know what the fear was about, but it really bothered him, and he'd stay up all night worrying about the flight. So Bergkamp decided that after the 1994 World Cup in the USA, he would never fly again! Of course, this decision caused him to miss a few games that he didn't want to miss, and not flying meant that Bergkamp had to spend several times more time than usual moving between places in traffic, such as
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For the game against Newcastle, the rest of the team caught a flight from London, but Bergkamp had to drive north from London with the team's equipment manager until he reached Newcastle. But looking back at the end of his career, he believes that this decision actually made him a better, more secure soccer player, because not having to worry about flying kept his mind off things, and even made him a better soccer player!
