Denis Bergkamp is rightly one of the greatest players of his generation. Popular for his magical first touch on the pitch and professionalism of the pitch he was undoubtedly a true football gentlemen. He is considered by some as the greatest Arsenal player with his only flaw being his fear of flying.
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| Dennis Bergkamp |
Here are his best quotes.
On his favourite type of goal
"When I played in Holland, I always tried to lob the goalkeeper. People used to say, 'Oh, you're always only trying to make a nice goal'. But I said, 'Listen, if the goalie is a little bit off his line, how much space do you have on his left or right?' It's not a lot. 'And how much space do you have above him?"
On being a football fan
"When you start supporting a football club, you don't support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong"
On his fear of flying
"It got so bad I would look up at the sky during away games to see what the weather was like. Were there any clouds coming? Sometimes I was preoccupied by the flight home while I was playing football. It was hell"
On life as a footballer
"I love the balance I have as a Football player. I come in and train in the mornings, and in the afternoon I live a very ordinary life"
On joining Inter Milan
"I've made a lot of big decisions on feeling, on instinct. And that was one of them. And, you know, maybe it was the right decision in the end. I didn't enjoy it, but I learned a lot at Inter. It was the making of me in a way. I would never have had the career I did at Arsenal if I hadn't been there"
On his goal against Newcastle
"Ten yards before the ball arrived I made my decision: I'm going to turn him. I knew where Dabizas was. The thought was, 'just flick the ball and see what happens'. Maybe he'll block it, or the flick won't be wide enough, or he'll anticipate and get two yards ahead. Or maybe he'll be surprised and I'll be one or two yards in front of him. As it happened, I still wasn't in front of him, so I had to push him off. So you need some luck as well"
On Thierry Henry
"If you look at the whole package, with everything Henry has, I don't think you can find that anywhere else. You give him the ball in the right place and his acceleration will take him past any defender in the world."
On footballer's salaries
"People can say the money doesn't really matter but it does show you how much a club respects you"
On Arsene Wenger
"Arsene Wenger's idea is not only to play good football. It's to play good football to win. In my day, we knew that with our style we could hurt teams and win trophies too. But we did it our way, with the positional game, passing, movement"
On being a Gooner
"I really like Arsenal. But you, do you like Arsenal? Or just Arsenal with trophies?"
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