His start

Dennis Bergkamp was born in Amsterdam on May, 1969. He was named after the famous Manchester United's player Denis Law but there had to add one more 'n' because "Denis" reminds too much "Denise" in the Netherlands. Dennis drilled the ball hour after hour against the garden wall at his family home at a young age or dribbled around his three elder brothers who were also all football fanatics. For years, his parents took him and his brothers to England on holiday and his love for English developed during his childhood years. His family were Manchester United fans, but Dennis admired Glenn Hoddle of Spurs the most.

Bergkamp is another product of the Ajax youth system. He joined the Ajax youth team when he was 12. But even the hard work was not enough to please the couches at Ajax, they thought young Bergkamp was too lightweight and not physically strong enough to be a football player. For years, he struggled in the youth team.

After Dennis played few years with the Ajax youth, Johan Cruyff discovered Bergkamp's talent and took him away from the junior-team and asked him to play with the first team. His first league game was in 14th of December in 1986 against Roda JC Kerkade and few months later he made his European debut in the Cup Winners Cup against Malmö FF. In that year he made four goals in the CWC and Ajax won the Cup. In 1990 he won the Championship medal with Ajax and in 1993 the Dutch Cup. He also became an international in the Dutch squad. His international debut was in 1990 against Italy and two months later he scored his first goal for his country against Greece. He was a regular ever since until he retired at international level after Euro 2000. In 1992, the Netherlands went to Sweden as a favourite to win the European Championship. Bergkamp played alongside with his superstar teammates such as Gullit, van Basten, Rijkaard, and Koeman. Dennis played well and scored three goals (top scorer in the tournament with Larsen, Riedle and Brolin) before the Netherlands lost to Denmark in penalty shootout in the semi-finals.