A name like Dennis Bergkamp doesn't need much introduction. The Dutchman is synonymous with quality, elegance, some of the best controls in history and one of the most grateful players for YouTube highlights . It is very difficult that someone does not like the way he understood soccer. For this reason, after retiring after the 2006 Paris final in which he did not play for a minute, it only took him a few years to earn a statue around the Emirates Stadium that honors his eleven years at Arsenal , a club for which he is considered the second best player in history only behind his teammate Henry , and in theKNVB campus , similar to the Ciudad de Fútbol de Las Rozas for the Dutch national team.
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After hanging up his boots, he has basically focused on helping his club, Ajax, for a decade. The chronology of the beginning of his career is that of any former player who retires, lives for a few years as he had not been able to do since adolescence, and becomes a coach because the smell of freshly cut grass calls too much, although at first it was not his idea.
"My son played with the Hadley Rangers and I was a coach for a week. I prepared the sessions well for the boys. I realized how much fun it was to train"
On April 9, 2008, he enrolled in the accelerated coach course that ex-soccer players have access to, sharing a desk with Reiziger and Kluivert. That same season he had already practiced helping at Ajax B1 , the club's third youth team, and the Netherlands under-21 alongside two true legends: Van Basten and Neeskens respectively. "I called Dennis a few weeks ago because he wanted to know how he was and if he wanted to do something for Ajax in any way. It is important to work with the highest quality possible and it is obvious that Dennis has qualities. In our conversation, he said he would come to Holland to do the coach course. In that course they had to do an internship, I offered him an apprenticeship and he was very interested. I hope this is good for Ajax and for Dennis. I think he can improve the players. His presence will have an impact on the team. For Ajax in general, it's also good that someone at Dennis's level is involved with the club, "says Van Basten. After getting the title, they gave him Ajax D2 (similar to Infantil B) in tandem with Heini Otto .
"It's really nice when you see that the things you work on during training are collected by the boys"
His great test so far came on January 3, 2011, when he took the first youth from Ajax succeeding Frank de Boer , who stayed as the first team coach after the resignation of Martin Jol a month earlier. The former defense had five years and very good means and part of his success is also due to his assistants: Spijkerman , Carlo L'Ami and Bergkamp, who was part of the coaching staff since mid-2011.
You could say that it was the striker coach who guided the exercises when working on specific aspects of the position. At his command he had players such as Sigthórsson, Fischer, Bojan, Sulejmani, El Ghazi, Dolberg, Justin Kluivert or Milik, who does not hesitate to value Bergkamp's work in the De Toekomst training camp : "On a personal level, I am better Player now than in the summer of 2014. Every day I put all my effort into training. Bergkamp's presence as one of our coaches at Ajax helps. He is always close. Even after training he puts us in extra sessions to practice the In those sessions I train my less skillful leg a lot. He is not just anybody! During his time at Ajax and Arsenal, Bergkamp was one of the best strikers in the world. It really helps to work with legends like him. I cannot explain in detail what he is his work with the Ajax strikers, but we really all improved. It has to do with the small details, the things that are specific to the strikers ... ".
"I have no ambition to become Ajax head coach. I like my role as it is. Also, as a head coach you are involved in soccer 24/7. I do not want that. I want to be able to finish the job as soon as I get home. ”
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Bergkamp with Dolberg in training with Ajax.AFC Ajax
In December 2017, Ajax fired Keizer , the coach,and the aforementioned Spijkerman for poor performance, especially the defeat on penalties against Twente in the second round Cup. However, the club acknowledges that the case of Bergkamp is different and his dismissal is a "difference of opinion" with policy of the board. Since then, he has not played a game with the veterans' team either (his last game was in May of that same year, in which they beat Nice thanks to his double).
Outside of Ajax, since March 2019 he has been an assistant at the Almere sub-23 , a club attached to Amsterdam (less than forty kilometers separate his stadium from the Johan Cruijff Arena ), where his son Mitchel also plays . A quiet life, like his heartbeats when he faced the goalkeeper.
