Johan Cruyff, Dennis Bergkamp and Robin Van Persie discuss the art of football

Henry Winter
The Telegraph
Monday 27 October 2008

It was a sight to set the heart of any football lover beating fast and to send Arsene Wenger's pulse racing off the scale.

His precious striking talent, Robin van Persie, was launching himself into a kickabout with a group of north London kids, hurtling into tackles as well as parading his dribbling, passing and shooting gifts.

This was not some high-stakes final at Wembley. This was Elthorne Park in Islington, a strip of inner-city land reclaimed from drug-users, alcoholics and vandals, and converted into a field of dreams for youngsters who could not believe their luck at Van Persie joining in.

Such pitches remind the Dutchman of his youth, of the "cage'' near his Rotterdam home where he developed his skills. An adult with a schoolboy's smile, Van Persie eventually broke away from the game and ran across to the watching Johan Cruyff and Dennis Bergkamp, the pitch's patrons.

Money from Bergkamp's Arsenal testimonial has been channelled through the Cruyff Foundation and Arsenal's community department to help build the first "Cruyff Court'' in the UK following the success of 80 similar cages in Holland. Surrounded by tough fences, a strong artificial surface was given the seal of approval by Van Persie on Thursday.

The three Dutchmen, elegant symbols of their nation's commitment to sublime technical football, then found a quiet corner to talk about street football, Total Football, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, the physicality of the Premier League, even the role of art in sport.

Cruyff, still lean, still charismatic, was initially the master of the conversation, his younger compatriots listening respectfully to the three-time European Footballer of the Year. But being Dutch, Bergkamp and Van Persie were not short of opinions themselves. Bergkamp exuded intelligence and an awareness of football as a power for social good. Van Persie still inhabits the bubble of professional football but understood with a passion the importance of the Cruyff Court.

"When I see a ball, I want to play – with kids, whoever,'' Van Persie explained of his energetic debut in the cage. "Unfortunately, I can't really play on the street any more because I play professionally. When you get older, you get more money, but in my heart, it's still the same. I love football.

"I learnt on the streets. Since the age of five, I practised all day on a pitch like this five minutes from my house. Look at my left foot. It is so good because I practised so many hours in the cage. When I was eight, one guy told me: 'Your shot is rubbish.' 'I know,' I replied. Two months later he came back and said: 'Man, your shot is amazing.' 'I know because I have been here every single day from nine until the evening, practising.'''

Van Persie used the "cage'' because the streets, the Tarmac alma maters of Cruyff and Bergkamp, acquired too many perils. Cruyff became determined to tackle the curse of "overweight people and criminality'', and began pouring his energies and money into these courts via his wonderful foundation. "It looks a cage but the parents know they are safe,'' Cruyff remarked. "They know they get coaching from Arsenal. Once a month Robin comes to play here. It's fantastic.''

Bergkamp nodded, adding that "the cage is the new street'', and agreeing with Cruyff's belief that "the average technique has dipped''. "I really feel so,'' Bergkamp said. "We played on stones. If you fell down, you hurt yourself, so you get your balance right. The first touch has to be right otherwise the ball bounces away.''

Instincts sharpened, Bergkamp was such a prodigy that "we had to adjust our training to Dennis' school times'', reflected his first coach at Ajax.

"The street taught us,'' Cruyff added. "Messi grew up like this.'' Barcelona's clever little Argentine also drew an appreciative comment from Bergkamp. "Messi taught himself instead of a coach saying 'run from cone to cone with the ball, do this, do that'.'' Pure instinct explained why Bergkamp span the ball around one side of Newcastle United's Nikos Dabizas while he darted the other to beat Shay Given in 2002. "When I scored that goal , it was a feeling. No one can teach you that.''

Instinct runs through two England internationals most associated with street football, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, products of Merseyside council estates. "I am an admirer of Rooney,'' Bergkamp said. "He has timing, shooting, control and knows where the keeper is because he looked before he controls the ball. He chips the ball and you can look at the footage and the commentator says: 'He never looked at the goalie'. Yes he did! Before!''

Cruyff took up the thread. "That's good – the combination of control and vision.'' "Gerrard has it,'' Bergkamp continued. "I have in mind a cross to Robbie Keane; Gerrard saw Keane move and knew how to hit the ball.''

For all their general concern about a decline in technique, Cruyff and Bergkamp argue that flair still flourishes at the very highest level. "In Barcelona, I see Messi, Bojan, Iniesta and Sergi Busquets, who's so fantastic to watch,'' Cruyff said. "In the Premier League there are a lot of good players like [Theo] Walcott and Van Persie.''

The emergence of such players encouraged Cruyff to believe that Total Football could live in the tactical modern world . "Yes! Why not? It's 11 v 11, the field is the same size. The biggest change is that a lot of people paid attention to the physical side and forgot the technical side.

"Of course winning is important but to enjoy yourself is very important. It's not like the Italians 30 years ago, defending and saying: 'We have to win. How? It doesn't matter.' It does matter.''

Agreement came from Van Persie, who plays for Wenger's style kings, often to the point of over-elaboration. "I respect clubs who want to do it more physically but I am really happy to play this way,'' Van Persie said, although he felt opponents were increasingly physical towards Arsenal. "It's getting worse and worse.

"They give you space in Europe – you can turn without being kicked but if you play a derby like West Ham [Sunday], there's a big difference. The Premier League is so physical. When I first came, I was shocked. What is happening here? I needed to play with my ideas and style, but also adapt. You need to be ready for the physical challenge or you die.''

This is a road once travelled by Bergkamp. "If you are not that physical, and can't win that battle, you have to come up with other solutions: better first touch, quicker passing, better crossing, better finishing. This Arsenal team have that. The way they play football is fantastic. They just need to get a bit more physical, a little bit more clinical in finishing and closing games off, especially when playing a bad game.''

Wenger's approach entranced Van Persie. "I think it is beautiful when I have the ball and can shoot, but pass and a team-mate scores. I don't see it happen with other teams very often. I see lots of strikers playing for themselves – they want to score, they want a transfer, they want more money. Football is not about that. Football is a team sport.''

Nodding at mention of Emile Heskey's selfless pass to set up Rooney against Belarus, Van Persie observed: "That makes the big players. The newspapers go after the one who scored, but it is also about the one who creates the pass. I really like players like Alexander Hleb from Barcelona and Dennis."

Van Persie recalled Esteban Cambiasso's goal – after 24 passes – for Argentina against Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 World Cup. "We were in the same group and everyone clapped. What a goal! I scored a fantastic volley against Charlton two years ago , and if I had to choose between that and the goal of Cambiasso, I would chose Cambiasso because the whole team is involved. So beautiful.''

Bergkamp agreed. "It is better to have three or four players involved than just one volley – for the camaraderie. If Marco Van Basten scores that goal [the famous Euro 88 volley ] five players might think 'fantastic goal' and another five might say: 'OK he scored but he should have crossed.' If everyone is involved, then everyone says...'' "It's our goal!'' intervened Van Persie.

But what of Maradona? Surely one man can turn a game, a tournament? "The other Argentine players were of a certain level where they think 'if we give him the ball, he will make us champions','' concurred Bergkamp. "But Maradona had so many assists as well,'' Van Persie pointed out. "He made the assist for the final goal in the 1986 World Cup final [for Jorge Burruchaga].''

Van Persie's love of the collective led him initially to dismiss the suggestion that his sculptor father and painter mother bestowed genes now manifesting themselves in his expressive trade. Theirs were solitary pursuits, he argued. "I don't believe there is any connection between my artistic background and my football,'' Van Persie insisted.

"When I was a kid, I was always laughing about my parents. They could look at a tree and see something really nice in it. To me it was just a tree. They were so creative.'' After prompting from Bergkamp, Van Persie briefly fell into line. "I am like that [creative] with the ball, I suppose. Yes, football is art if you play it beautifully.''

His father now makes collages of matches. "He took Arsenal's programmes and turned them into people and it is a crowd shot,'' Van Persie said. "He got the idea from going to see me in the stadium. He thought the fans were a fantastic view. But it [the collage] is really individual. Football is not individual.''

Bergkamp chuckled. "He made a 1 and a 0 for me and that is something really special,'' said Arsenal's most famous No 10. "That is beautiful,'' Van Persie agreed. So is the new Cruyff Court at Elthorne Park.