Nikos Dabizas. Remember him?
He played for Newcastle United at the turn of the century – which also happened to be his cause of death.
Some would have you believe that he still walks among us, now a 42-year-old ex-pro, but anyone who was witness to events at St James’ Park on March 2, 2002 will be able to tell you the exact moment the defender’s broken spirit departed.
It was in the 11th minute of a top-of-the-table encounter between Newcastle United and Arsenal. Dabizas was wearing monochrome stripes, but Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp was the real smooth criminal of that fateful day.
It was his rakish accomplice Robert Pires who fed Bergkamp his ammunition. A dart of a pass found the Dutchman with his back to goal and his Greek journeyman victim in close attendance at his rear.
Then it happened. Instead of gathering the ball in like any decent human-being, the evil mastermind defied all known laws of physics, morality and common decency. He did something that still elicits gasps from hardened spectators.
With a flick of his left boot (we know this because slow motion footage is available), Bergkamp sent the ball on a trajectory of its own. He turned the other way – possibly to claim a handy alibi – and murdered Dabizas in the process.
Such was the transcendent beauty of Bergkamp’s magic trick – so beguiling his pirouette – that no one noticed the inverted remains of the Newcastle man in his wake. It was only afterwards that the hot mess was apparent.
Arsenal’s Number 10, with not a trace of guilt or conscience, simply reacquainted himself with the ball a moment later, and stroked it gently past of ashen-faced Shay Given. It was obscene and miraculous all at once.
The day is remembered for a Dutch master elevating football beyond its known parameters for one heavenly second. But no one recalls the Greek tragedy he authored in the process.
