Patrick Vioira
Dennis is undoubtedly one of the game's great players.
I have been lucky to play with some brilliant footballers in my career and
Dennis is definitely one of the best. If you are naming your all-time greatest
football team, Dennis is in it.
"THERE'S ONLY ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP, ONE DENNIS BERGKAMP,
"I played in
the game at
Leicester when
he scored a
hat-trick, no-
one will ever
forget that
match, it took
your breath
away. P J
championship and cup we won and
continued to amaze people with his
technique and quality. He scored a
lot of goals for Arsenal, over 100,
and they all seemed to have a
special elegance about them and
his game was as much about
creating goals as scoring them.
Dennis would be one of the very
few players who I'd actually pay to
watch play football and he was such
a special talent that you knew it
wasn't just the Arsenal fans who
wanted to see Dennis play, the
opposition supporters wanted to
say 'I saw Dennis Bergkamp' too.
Everyone will tell you what a
fantastic professional Dennis is and
I think he would be considered the
perfect pro. He's won so much, but
still gave everything in every
training session. And you don't get
to 37 and still playing in the
Premiership without having kept
yourself in amazing condition - and
I bet he'll still be as skinny when
he's 50!
Internationally Dennis was a
There are very few players in the
world who can say to themselves 'I
made all the players around me
look like better footballers', Dennis
can say that. To me that's a sign of a
truly great player, that ability to
improve the game of every player
who is fortunate enough to play
alongside them. Ask Wrighty,
Nicolas Anelka or Thierry what they
think of Dennis and I guarantee
they've loved every second playing
alongside him; as his partner up
front for so many games, those
guys have benefited more than
anyone.
The 1998 'double' winning season
was something special for Dennis.
I honestly can't believe any other
player has won the PFA Player of
the Year, the Football Writers award
and Goal of the Season, which was
an amazing achievement and that
season he produced incredible
performance after
incredible
performance. I
played in the game
at Leicester when
he scored a hat-
trick, no-one will
ever forget that
match, it took your
breath away.
But to tell the truth,
Dennis did this kind
of thing every
season and in
training too. He was
a big part of every
