Dennis Bergkamp: Legend   Starring: Dennis Bergkamp ITV DVD RRP: £17.99 3711531383 Certificate: E Available 28 September 2009

Dennis Bergkamp is arguably the most technically gifted player to ever grace the Premier League and the Gunners love him for it. You could fill a page with a list of outstanding goals scored by him. You could fill two pages with a list of the goals that had their genius in his vision. And you could fill a dictionary with a list of superlatives used to describe his 11-year career with Arsenal. Winner of the PFA and Football Writers’ Player of the Year award in 1998, winner of Premier League Goal of the Season Award in ’98 and ’02 and in FIFA’s top 100 Greatest Living Players, Dennis Bergkamp is quite simply a legend of the game...

I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of football so it was with some trepidation that I approached Dennis Bergkamp: Legend. I’m still not sure what the makers were trying to achieve here, undoubtedly he is a successful footballer and the disc does nothing to dispel this idea.

The disc is split into two sections the first is the main feature Dennis Bergkamp: Legend (1 hr, 05 min, 51 sec) wherein a lot of people pop up to say what a great player he is. Nothing wrong with that, except you don’t really get a feel for the man himself. Adulation is okay, but what about what makes him tick. Anyone with a talent will always be lauded, but if the talent is kicking a bladder around a field for ninety mins, you have to wonder at the values of our society.

The second half of the disc is filled with his greatest goals a whole forty min and fourteen secs of them, goal after goal. You have to hand it to the chap, he knows how to put one in. This is the sort of lazy stuff that is put out for fans of football. Maybe I’m wrong and fans don’t actually care about the man himself just his ability, personally what could have been a fascinating documentary became an exercise in platitudes.

4

Charles Packer