From the New York Times apparently in that friendly between Arsenal/Inter, Javier Zanetti made his Inter debut,
That essentially heralded modern Arsenal. Signing of flair players, more attractive football, and signing higher profile players. Arsene is a God, but I think if Rioch had stayed and had full support of the board, we would have challenged for the league eventually.
It wasn't just significant for Arsenal, it was significant for the Premier League. There were foreign players before Dennis, but he really changed the way they performed and were perceived.
i have to be fair here, bergkamp was well down the line of foreign players who made noticeable impacts. i guess bert trautman might have been the first, but, in my lifetime, the signing of world cup winners ossie ardilles and ricky villa by spurs in 1978 was a real watershed moment for foreign players in english football. if anyone is too young to remember that, ardilles in particular was a really fantastic player, kind of like a deeper prototype zola. (btw. as an aside, did you know arsenal almost signed maradona in 1979? i think we tried to hijack sheffield wednesday's attempted deal but the fa pulled the plug)
Yeah, but in the Premier League era, Bergkamp is oftentimes considered the signing that allowed the Premier League to be looked at how it is. Because of what happened in the 80s, English soccer wasn't exactly in high demand on the Continent, nor was coming to play in it.
Certainly remember Ardilles. He's the main reason kids like me were trying rainbows (the over the head flick while on the run) in the late 70s early 80s.
Agree with Yoss. Ardilles was the first guy I was shown "clips" of. My coach, who knew next to nothing about soccer except what looked good, had a couple of training sessions where we watched (I think it was BetaMax) highlight tapes. Ardilles was one of the ones I remember seeing.
Cantona had a greater and earlier impact than DB in the Premier League. As an Arsenal fan, it's easy to over-exaggerate how influencial he was outside the club. Doesn't mean that Cantona was better of course (he obviously wasnt)
yeah, I have to agree with this. Cantona was the first premiership global star, let alone foreign star.
I would say Klinsmann. Though even now, many years later, it's still funny that Spurs couldn't hold on to him lol...
He won the Football Writer's award and scored 30 goals. I think he amongst others commenced the trend of high quality foreigners.
does it matter if it's premiership/premier league or prior to that? the only thing that effectively changed was the name and a bigger tv sponsorship. all records and results carry on through. in which case, technically, the english league's biggest foreign (in today's terms) "global superstar" was probably george best.
Well yes, that does matter, especially since that is the reason why the league is as big, popular to foreign fans and players, and worldwide as It is today (the worldwide TV deal which you didn't include in the "what changed" portion of your post). Also, I believe the original point was about Bergkamp's influence on the premier league globally. Cantina was the premier league's first true superstar. I feel like you brought this up to talk about the "good ol days" again despite the irrelevancy pertaining to this topic.
I do think there was a bit of a difference in bringing in player from Ireland/Scotland/N. Ireland and bringing in continental players. Cantona and Bergkamp were certainly two of the early successes in the premiership from the continent.
stupid auto correct, CANTONA exactly and thats a good point about the original foreigners being from those Islands as well
I had a dream last night that Dennis Bergkamp went parachuting in North Carolina and landed in a cliffside cave above a river like 25 or 30 feet, so Thierry Henry gave me a call to come and help him out. We got DB10 out of the cave, then we hung out in a pool and drank some cocktails and BS'd for quite a while. I somehow learned to speak a bit of Dutch and my French was flawless with Thierry. After talking with them for a while, they both said they'd like to hang out again and Henry offered to give me press passes to the MLS All Star Game for my sister who works for a newspaper in Philadelphia. Best dream ever.
