.Johan Cruy
THE START
Johan Cruyff was chosen as European Player of the Century. After winning three
European Cups with Ajax as a player, he led his club as manager to another
international win in 1987, when Ajax beat Lokomotiv Leipzig in the European
Cup Winners Cup. It was Dennis Bergkamp's first international trophy. After
Ajax Johan Cruyff made Barcelona one of the leading clubs in the world,
winning many Spanish titles along with the Champions League.
"THERE'S ONLY ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP, ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP,
DENNIS BERGKAMP TESTIMONIAL MATCH V AJAX JULY 22, 2006
"As I always had a flavour for youth-
football, I first saw Dennis playing
in one of Ajax youth teams. Already
then he was different to most of the
other boys. He came from a good
family, where he was raised in a fine
and solid manner. A polite boy and
a very good student at the highest
school level we had in Holland.
Quite a contrast with all the 'street
boys' we were used to at Ajax.
Maybe that was the reason it
almost took him a year to adjust to
a new level. Dennis never made it
directly into the youth team in his
first year, this didn't happen until
his second season.
Because of his background and the
experiences we had with the
different youth teams, we decided
in 1986 to use a different approach
towards Dennis.
Let's put it this way, he had to
become tougher as a player. Also
because at the age of 17 his
development went so fast, that I
became more and more interested
in using him for our first team.
It was at the end of 1986 that, after
consulting the youth coaches, we
decided to go for a four-month-
experiment with Dennis, who was
then playing as a right winger. So
first he had to play two months as a
right-back, so he could understand
more about the approach of a
defender towards a winger. Then he
had to play two months as a centre-
forward, where instead of playing
against only one defender as a
winger, he had to deal with two
opponents.
With all these 'methods' we tried to
make him tougher and more aware
about the rules in the big football
world.
But he managed very well and on
March 18,1987 he made his debut
with Ajax.
It was the home game against
