The Far Post Header ‘Hall of Fame’ No.13 – Dennis Bergkamp
The second Dutchman in a row to join the Far Post Header ‘Hall of Fame’ and for me, Dennis Bergkamp was a certainty for this list.
Bergkanp is the finest player that I have ever seen play, better than Thierry Henry who is the second greatest.
It is no exaggeration to say that Dennis Bergkamp changed the way that football was played in this country forever.
When he arrived at Arsenal in June 1995, the Dutchman’s style revolutionised the way Arsenal played. His skill and deftness of touch was completely different to what had been seen in recent years at Highbury.
Manager George Graham preferred to play dour, defensive football with skillful players such as David Rocastle sold on to bring in more physical players. Grinding out results was the name of the game, flair and
There were jokes at the time of Arsenal’s midfielders suffering from neckache as they were used to watching long clearances going over their heads to the strikers. Sadly for us Arsenal fans, it wasn’t that far away from the truth!
As a product of Ajax’s famous youth system, Bergkamp was quickly identified as a skilful and talented youngster and made his first team debut at 17. With Dutch legend Johan Cruyff in charge, he was given plenty of opportunities to showcase his ability, making 23 first-team appearances in his first season.
One of those games was the 1987 European Cup Winners Cup Final, which came three days after Bergkamp’s 18th birthday. Ajax beat Lokomotive Leipzig 1-0 thanks to a 21st minute winner from Marco van Basten.
Bergkamp won the Eredivisie title with Ajax in the 1989/90 and a second European competition in 1992, when Ajax beat Torino to lift the UEFA Cup Final.
26th September 1990 was the date that the world first saw Bergkamp in a Holland shirt and he scored his first international goal two months later against Greece.
Holland qualified for Euro 92 and Bergkamp score three times in the tournament.
The Dutch side topped their group that included Germany, Scotland and CIS, before losing the semi-final on penalties to the eventual winners Denmark.
On a personal level, Bergkamp was awarded the Dutch Player of the Year in both 1992 and 1993. This is all the more impressive when you think of all of the fine Dutch players at the time.
His goalscoring improved as well, scoring 122 goals in 239 appearances before an offer was accepted from Inter Milan for both Wim Jonk and Dennis Bergkamp in 1993.
Life in Italy wasn’t as Bergkamp was expecting and he struggled with the style of play of Serie A. He did win a UEFA Cup winner’s medal in his first season, but Inter struggled in the league, ending the season a point off relegation.
Bergkamp was selected for the 1994 World Cup in America and scored three goals as the Dutch reached the Quarter Finals, before losing 3-2 to eventual winners Brazil.
After one last season at Inter Milan, Bergkamp joined Arsenal for £7.5 million in June 1995. He made an instant impact to Arsenal and the Premiership in general, scoring some great goals and creating many more.
His first silverware at Highbury came in his third season at the club, when Arsenal stormed to a League and FA Cup Double in the 1997/98 season.
Bergkamp got injured a couple of weeks before the Cup Final and missed out on his boyhood dream of playing in a Cup Final at Wembley.
He won the PFA Player’s Player of the Year award for his performances over the season.
Holland had qualified for the 1998 World Cup and Bergkamp was selected for the tournament. He scored three goals, including one of the greatest seen at a World Cup. It came against Argentina and won the Quarter Final in the last minute. More can be read about it here.
The Dutch lost in the Semi Final to Brazil, losing on penalties after the game ended 1-1 after extra time. Bergkamp was chosen in the All-Star Team of the Tournament.
The opportunity to make up for it came the following season but he had a penalty saved by Peter Schmeichel in the semi-final replay against Manchester United. Arsenal lost the game 2-1 in extra-time.
Arsenal would also lose their Premiership crown on the final day of the season, with Manchester United winning the league by a single point.
Arsenal reached the final of both the UEFA Cup in 2000 before Bergkamp went on to play in Euro 2000 in his home country.
The Dutch lost on penalties to Italy in the semi-finals and Bergkamp then retired from international football. He finished with 37 goals and was the highest goalscorer for the Dutch national side until Patrick Kluivert took over a few years later.
Arsenal lost in the FA Cup Final to Liverpool in 2001. They would go on and win the League and Cup Double in 2001/02 with Bergkamp instrumental in the success.
In 2002/03, Arsenal retained the FA Cup but finished second in the league.
The next season was an historic one for Arsenal as they went the whole season unbeaten in the league. The team became known as ‘The Invincibles’.
Bergkamp was part of the Arsenal team to win the 2005 FA Cup, beating Manchester United on penalties.
In Bergkamp’s final season, Arsenal were playing in their final season at Highbury. Different games had different themes and the home game against West Bromwich Albion was called ‘Dennis Bergkamp Day’. The Dutchman would go on and score the winning goal in the game, that saw many fans wearing orange, the same colour as the Dutch national team jersey.
Bergkamp’s career would ultimately end in disappointment as Arsenal lost 2-1 to Barcelona in the Champions League Final.
He ended his career with 120 goals for the club, many of them were absolute beauties! Bergkamp also created many goals for his colleagues and I have included a video of them below. His inch-perfect passing and timing is evident in the video and shows what a remarkable player he really was.
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