Before you start reading this article, you will look again at the photo that you have just written by.
Now look at the ball and see how it is the point of focus, the clearest of images in the midst of the surrounding haze of movement: the careful concentration of Dennis Bergkamp; Damiano Tommasi's combination of disgust and confusion; The intrigues of Bobby Pires.
When Dennis Bergkamp stroked a football, it became the center of the universe.
We were able to spend all day with a fight about which the biggest touch of the career of Bergkamp was.
The round-the-corner Flick beyond Nikos Dabizas to score against Newcastle in 2002? The cradle to bring the ball against Argentina and to score a last-minute winner in the quarterfinals of France '98? Or what about the Severing to complete his hat trick against Leicester in '97?
Well, we are here to get you out of your misery: this was the biggest first touch of the career of Dennis Bergkamp …
The arrogance of the flick over Tommasi's head is outrageous enough, just like the spider and the first time volley to use Sylvain Wiltord on goal is enough to make a ballet dancer, but it is the context of the chaos around Bergkamp that makes this specific moment one of its finest works of art.
Only 25 minutes were played in Highbury, with Arsenal opposite Roma from the back of three consecutive draws in the second group stage of their Champions League campaign, which needed a result because they wanted to qualify for the quarterfinals.
The game went according to plan when Patrick Vieira went home from a corner in the 12th minute. And the hosts had opportunities to double their lead within a few minutes before the touch paper was good and really illuminated when Martin Keown went under a challenge from Francesco Totti in the 22nd minute.
Totti was sent away after he was assessed for Keown te Elleboog; Repetitions showed that his hand had brushed the face of the back behind.
But although apparently everyone around him lost their collective sh*t, Bergkamp decided to respond only three minutes later and it is worth repeating the ball out of the air, lobes him over Tommasi's head and playing Lazily for the first time to put Wiltord in the goal.
The tragedy of the clip is that we don't get to see how it ends, but given that we know that the game ended with 1-1-Antonio Cassano Equalized just before half-time after David Seaman went outside of his box for a walk and failed to get a long ball over the top that Wiltord did not score.
A quick look at the Guardian's minute to minute's report reveals the following: “Bergkamp finds Wiltord one-on-one with Lima. Apart from the Roma keeper, they are the only two players in that half of the field … So of course Gormless Gormless in Lima, who doesn't even know where the ball is, never intends.”
Bergkamp created two more chances for Wiltord, and again, we don't have to tell you that the Frenchman could not convert.
“He has intelligence and class,” Arsene Wenger once said about the striker. “Class is of course usually linked to what you can do with the ball, but the intelligence ensures that you use the technology in an efficient way.”
By Wenger's words, that 25th minute in a discouraging 1-1 draw against Roma perhaps Dennis Bergkamp on his most perfect.