True geniuses are rare; books that do justice to their genius are rarer. Stillness and Speed falls fully into that category. Written by Dutch writer and football expert, David Winner (who also wrote Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football) with ample inputs from Dennis Bergkamp himself, this is a refreshing narrative that shines and stands out in a genre that is saturated with formulaic, repetitive texts that usually don’t yield too many real insights, the footballer’s thoughts and voice lost in the elaborately constructed story by the writer.
The Dutch version by Jaap Visser is, in Winner’s own words, the Arnold Schwarzenegger to the English edition’s Danny DeVito; a coffee table colossus that covers all aspects of Bergkamp’s life and career chronologically and through multiple colour photographs. Here, Winner provides the loose, experimental format and lets Bergkamp do what he does best – guide and assist the narrative of his own life in a way that enlightens and lets the reader truly understand what makes one of the most creative players football has ever seen. Just like the ease and grace that so characterised his game, the book has an effortless flow and chapter names seem merely present to be able to divide the sections for the contents page. (They have names like It Has To Be Perfect, Driven, The Dark Side, The Penalty, The Meaning of Meaning, Future of the Future.)
However there is also enough proof of his steely interior, his stubbornness in sticking to his pure vision of the game even when others (particularly during his ill-fated Serie A stint) called him too snobbish to conform to their style of play. It is here that Winner shows his interviewer skills, asking probing questions, questions that demand honest answers and explore some of the darkest and most difficult moments of Bergkamp’s career (His penalty miss against Manchester United in the 1999 FA Cup semifinal has an entire chapter dedicated to it with some very interesting, thought-provoking discussions about what is a good or bad penalty. Similarly that goal against Newcastle also gets its own chapter and in-depth analysis).
There is also plenty of unexpected humour, dry wit and mischief that will make you smile, chuckle and even laugh out loud (the story of Bergkamp and Wright’s first meeting at a petrol station near Croydon is one of the best). Above all there is his constant striving for perfection, his passion and obsession with the beautiful game and a very introspective, intelligent voice that perfectly complements the football we were lucky to be able to witness on the pitch.