News about Dennis Bergkamp

CHRIS WHEELER IN ROTTERDAM: As his £36.5millon transfer to Manchester United moved closer in May, Joshua Zirkzee headed back to his very first club to keep fit on the grass pitch there. A black Porsche roared down the quiet lanes of Spijkenisse, south west of Rotterdam, and pulled up at VV Hekelingen where Zirkzee emerged with two mates and a bag of footballs. They were out of luck. 'He came here in a big car with a lot of noise,' said club groundsman Hans van Bodegom. 'First of all, I told him to slow down because there were a lot of kids about. Then I said they couldn't train on the main pitch. "That (the astroturf) is for you!".

INTERVIEW BY KIERAN GILL: You walk out of interviewing Jan Paul van Hecke at Brighton's training ground with the urge to phone your dad, just because you realise how lucky you are that you still can. This 24-year-old from the tiny Dutch town of Arnemuiden wishes he could. To talk football. To talk family. To talk anything. His father, Guus, died two years ago and it was crushing to lose that reassuring voice who regrettably missed seeing how his son became one of the Premier League's most reliable defensive lynchpins. 'He was my best friend,' Van Hecke says. 'When he was not there, it was hard. I was speaking to myself more. After a while, I found my way. In football, there's a lot of mental health, so you need to always speak with somebody. But when there's not really somebody?

Tens of thousands of Mail Sport readers have voted over the summer to choose the greatest-ever player at every current Premier League club. Thank you to everyone who participated either through our online poll or by email. With the 2024/25 top-flight season beginning on Friday, we are revealing all the winners this week.

Former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna included four Gunners players, alongside himself, in his ultimate Premier League XI. The Frenchman spent seven seasons in north London following a £7million move from Auxerre in 2007. He went on to make 285 appearances for the Gunners and was part of the team that won the FA Cup in 2014. Despite also spending a short time with Premier League rivals Manchester City between 2014 and 2017, Sagna's allegiances were anything but divided as he opted for an all-Arsenal front line of Thierry Henry , Dennis Bergkamp and Mesut Ozil.

CRAIG HOPE: The journey that brought Mark Clattenburg on board with the Daily Mail began in the foyer of a social club in Seaham in 2017. He was - not for the first time and, as this week shows, not for the last - at the centre of a media storm. The best referee in the world, he was quitting the Premier League for Saudi Arabia halfway through the season. It was back-page news. Clattenburg, however, had a commitment to give a talk to raise money for a junior football club close to his County Durham home. I bought a ticket and sat at the back of the room. Moments before the scheduled start, he was made aware of my presence and left the stage. He wanted a chat in the foyer. Was I about to get a red card?

John Terry has claimed that his Chelsea side's feat of conceding only 15 goals in the 2004-05 season was just as impressive as when Arsenal went a whole campaign unbeaten the previous year.  Terry was voted into the Premier League Hall of Fame on Monday, alongside Manchester United legend Andy Cole, where he joins former team-mate Ashley Cole for inductees in 2024.  In fact, he also finds a number of the Gunners' Invincible icons in the shape of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Arsene Wenger and of course Cole, who swapped north London for the west of the city not long after. 

The Premier League is arguably Europe's most competitive and high tempo league, perhaps even the world. From Cristiano Ronaldo to Thierry Henry to Dennis Bergkamp just to name a few. The Premier League established a Hall of Fame in 2020 in honor of the legends who have come and gone, with the first year of inductees arriving a year later in 2021 due to delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are the 20 players who have been inducted into its Hall Of Fame

Estelle, Bergkamp's mother, gave birth to a son last month and posed outside the Emirates with the baby dressed in an Arsenal shirt with the word 'Bergamp 10' on the back. The Dutchman posted the image on Instagram, with the caption: "My grandson, a Gooner for life." Bergkamp has been one of Arsenal's greatest-ever players, playing for the club from 1995 to 2006, making more than 100 appearances and being a part of the Invincibles team.

Dennis Bergkamp, Dirk Kuyt, and Henrik Larsson have all stated that they want to buy an English football team. According to football agent Rob Jansen, the trio of former players have decided to focus on a club in either League One or League Two. If the company's takeover bid goes well, Jansen has confirmed that it will take a hands-on approach.

AADAM PATEL: The future is a product of Ajax, De Toekomst's, and with nine football pitches (and two more to come), Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Edwin Van der Sar, Luis Suarez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and many other illustrious footballing names have all passed through in their careers. The word "Ajax for the future" is emblazoned in red and white on the training ground and inside the stadium. Almost as if there is an official acknowledgement from the marketing department that the four-time European Cup champions are just a feeder team. The truth is that promising players come to Ajax, develop, and then be offloaded to the Premier League's riches, which is precisely why the signing of Jordan Henderson on a two-and-a-year contract worth £120K per week has triggered such commotion in these regions.

MARTIN KEOWN: Arsenal versus Liverpool is a classic FA Cup match, and I've been to the highs and lows of this match-up. We promised not to let Michael Owen final in 2001, when he scored twice late, not to worry. We met in the fourth round of this year, and I was given a straight red card for pulling Owen back when it seemed he was going to score against us again. I had a decision to make in the split second, but it turned out to be a good one because we went on to win 1-0, as Dennis Bergkamp and Jamie Carragher were both disqualified, and Arsenal went on to win the 2002 FA Cup.

Dennis Bergkamp, a legend for Arsenal, has expressed his aspirations to invest in a League One team with the intention of bringing them through the divisions and promotion to the Premier League. The Dutchman was once close to acquiring the rights of Wycombe while being accompanied by a group of ex players and colleagues, including Dirk Kuyt, Ronald Koeman, and Henrik Larsson, before the transaction fell through as the club favoured another buyer.

NATHAN SALT: Bromley FC, a non-league football team, has joined Xbox and Football Manager to bring a one-of-a-kind opportunity for a fan to swap the gaming chair for one in the manager's office. The ambitious fifth division team have launched 'The Everyday Tactician,' a movement to recruit a Football Manager mastermind to join Andy Woodman's coaching staff. For the first time in the club's 131-year history, the winner will take up a five-month contract with the Kent-based team and will be charged with assisting them in advancing to the Football League for the first time in the club's 131-year history.

Kolo Toure, an ex-Arsenal center back, burst out joking after hearing former teammate Ray Parlour's account of the defender's controversial trial with the Gunners. Toure was a key player on Arsenal's team from 2002 to 2009, after joining the Gunners following a fruitful trial from Ivorian side ASEC Mimosas in a £150,000 contract. Parlour's trial has also chronicled how Arsenal players were stunned by Toure's treatment of Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp in preparation.

Marvin Berglas, 64, was chosen to lead the prestigious Magic Circle, which is said to be the UK's oldest magical group and has more than 1700 members around the world, including the likes of Sooty and King Charles himself. Marvin is following in the footsteps of his late father David, 97, who served in the post from 1989 to 1998. Although he wasn't initially a fan of magic, he did occasionally use a few tricks to attract girls and entertain bouncers at nightclubs in an attempt to get to the front of the line.

Trevor Francis, the first-ever £1 million player, has died on Friday. His conversion from Birmingham City to Nottingham Forest was historic at the time, as a pre-cursor to the exorbitant sums we see today. So how has the transfer record in Britain evolved down the years and risen to the peaks we see today?

After Manchester City defeated Inter Milan to win the Champions League on Saturday evening, Mail Sport took a look at the best English teams in history.

David Moyes will warn West Ham's defenders on Wednesday night that the only way to stop Erling Haaland is to count the bruises. On his Premier League debut against the Hammers in August, the Manchester City striker scored twice, one on a penalty and the other due to his stamina, which led to his pace after he rushed on to a Kevin De Bruyne pass. Haaland, the West Ham's boss, is already a Premier League legend, up with Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

After artificial intelligence selected an ultimate Gunners side, the TalkTV host took to Twitter to reveal his ultimate starting lineup. Dennis Bergkamp and Frenchman Henry up front, with the 57-year-old columnist opting for a conventional 4-2-2 setup. Piers selected Robert Pires and Bukayo Saka, respectively, on the left and right wings, as well as current hotshot Bukayo Saka, who has scored 12 goals on the season. Morgan selected Vieira and Emmanuel Petit in midfield, but it was his back line that sparked tense discussion.

After scoring in a 2-1 loss to Woking on Tuesday, Mitchel Bergkamp, the son of the legendary forward Dennis, has opened his account for Bromley. Having joined the National League as a free agent in January 2023, the forward seems to be following in his father's footsteps by making a splash in English football. Dennis Bergkamp spent 11 years with Arsenal before resigning at the end of the 2005-06 season, scoring 115 goals in 416 games as a key role in the unbeaten 'Invincibles' that captured the Premier League championship in 2003.

MATT BARLOW: The country ground came to a halt with the train workers and lorry drivers on strike, schools closed, inflation soared, politics collapsing, and football gorged on a gluttony of spending. This was February 1979 and the dog days of Discontent's winter. Nottingham Forest paid Birmingham City £1.18 million for Trevor Francis, less than a month after West Bromwich Albion had been the first to crack the £500,000 barrier. Chelsea's new US owners have returned to action, while football remains immune from the nation's highest cost of living crisis, as train drivers strike, schools close, and inflation rises. Some things don't change.

A match between Arsenal and Manchester United that has something riding on it? It's been a while. It seems like old times, with the Gunners roaring at the top of the Premier League table and United also in the title shake-up. Although United's two dropped points at Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, there is no doubt that a victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon would have put them right back in the hunt. And for those football enthusiasts of a certain age who adored the high voltage rivalry between the two teams between 1997 and 2004, this would be highly deserved indeed.

Hundreds of Arsenal legends, moments, and triumphs have been showcased, including Arsene Wenger, Jack Wilshere, Sportmail's Martin Keown, Alex Scott, Faye White, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, and Kelly Smith among the hundreds of Arsenal artists who will perform at the stadium, including 36 legends of the men's team.

CRAIG HOPE: Save for Brazil, are there any colours more synonymous with a World Cup than those of Holland and Argentina? The feelings invoked are personal to some, but not mine. For me, it was one of the last truly memorable World Cup matches (pictured). Influencing such sentiment is the belief that, as opposed to nearly every tournament's charmless, identikit bowls, Marseille's majestic Stade Velodrome is immediately identifiable. Qatar's stadiums may look stunning from the outside, but every game has taken place at the same central venue, according to a television viewer at least. The best World Cups have always been about the exoticism of the location - the shadows, patterns of the grass, architectural distinction, camera angle, and the seat colors. Think about the Azteca, San Siro, Giants Stadium. Consider Stade Velodrome. And there was a sensory overload of chaos, color, and entertainment in 1998's sunny Saturday afternoon.