Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Bergkamp
Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp; born 10 May 1969) is a Dutch former professional footballer, who is the assistant manager to Frank de Boer at Ajax. Originally a wide midfielder, Bergkamp was moved to main striker and then to second striker, where he remained throughout his playing career. Bergkamp has been described by Jan Mulder as having "the finest technique" of any Dutch international and a "dream for a striker" by teammate Thierry Henry...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionSoccer Player
Date of Birth10 May 1969
CityAmsterdam, Netherlands
I just wanted to get back to playing attacking football after my time in Italy. It was a little difficult at first but the atmosphere and the fans were just fantastic.
I think these awards are always nice for a player but they also reflect well on the club. It shows that Arsenal's performance have been noted all around the world and it helps by having so many good players around me.
Sometimes you feel the emotion. You think this might be my last pre-season or my last Champions League match. But, overall, those thoughts aren't important right now. But the time will soon come
It will be a hard game if you think about winning a championship. We need to think about our own game at the moment and focus on getting good results especially over the Christmas period.
So I took it as a very positive sign that the club came to me rather than the other way round.
So here, at Arsenal, we are often surprised when we are shown some of the newspapers, and at the bottom of an article there is a line saying if you know of anyone who had an affair with a player, call this number. It is very strange to us.
I've never seen myself as a manager. As a manager, you have to put all your time into the job, and that would be difficult for me.
Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one.
We're still a great team. In your mind you can understand that but, emotionally, we needed to express the same belief. We came out full of fire and scored two early goals, two really beautiful goals, and that changed everything.
My aim is to play as many games as possible and to go out and be one of the 11 players again.
A lot of people say you always come back to what you are good at. Football has been 25 years of my life, so maybe I'll come back to it in some sort of way.
The regular things in my life now - training sessions and playing matches - will all fall away. That will leave a big empty space and it will need to be filled
I don't want to lose myself in football and that's what a coach has to do to be successful.
When you beat a team so often - especially like this season when Chelsea had already lost three times to us - you know people expect you to do it again. But you also know they're going to be even more motivated to finally win.