There can be no doubt about who is the best foreign player ever in the Premier League. His name? Dennis Bergkamp. Dennis Bergkamp is not just a player, he’s a phenomenon. If it were not for his fear of flying, Bergkamp would have become the Johan Cruijff of his time.

Not only did he score the most beautiful goals, he has developed into a visionary on the field. With his strategic insight he put his team members in scoring positions, he directed the attacks and led Arsenal to great heights.

Being big fans of football (soccer for you Yankees) his parents named Bergkamp after the Scottish player Denis Law. At the age of twelve Dennis was admitted to the famous youth education of Ajax. And Dennis did well. Only five years later he made his debut in the Dutch Premier League for Ajax. The coach at that time was no one less than one of the best football players of all times: Johan Cruijff. Just six months after that he collected his first trophy: as a substitute he played in the Europe Cup II final against Lokomotive Leipzig. Ajax won.

From that time on he was one of the key players for Ajax. With Ajax he won the national championship in 1990, the UEFA Cup in 1992 and the KNVB cup (equivalent of the English FA Cup) in 1993. He was the top scorer in the Dutch premier league in 1991 and 1993 and was chosen Dutch Footballer of the year twice. In total Bergkamp played 239 matches for Ajax in which he scored 122 times.

As a result of their performance with both Ajax and the Dutch national team Inter Milan took an interest in both Bergkamp and Wim Jonk. They both transferred to Inter, but didn’t really prosper, although they did win the UEFA Cup in 1994.

In 1995 Bergkamp went to London to join Arsenal. It took some time before he was used to the English way of playing (he didn’t score in the first eight matches), but he and Ian Wright grew out to a striking force to be afraid of.

In the 1997/1998 Bergkamp dominated the Premier League. The list of awards (both personal and with Arsenal) is impressive, to say the least:

• English Championship: 1998, 2002, 2004
• English FA Cup: 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005
• English Player of the Year: 1998
• English Football Writers Player of the Year: 1998
• Goal of the Season Award: 1998, 2002
• Arsenal FC Player of the Year: 1998
• FIFA 3rd best Player of the Year: 1993, 1997

He made his debut for the Orange team in 1990 against Italy, when Rinus Michels was coach. With the Dutch team, Bergkamp wasn’t as successful as with Ajax and Arsenal. Semifinalist in 1992 (EC, lost by penalties), quarter finals in 1996 (EC), semifinalist in 1998 (WC) and semifinalist in 2000 (EC). Since the 2002 world championship was to be played in Japan and South Korea, Bergkamp ended his career as an international in 2000.