Former Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp confessed the pleasure of turning provider for his team-mates equals the joy of scoring goals.

Speaking to FourFourTwo Magazine, the Dutchman said how his pass to teammate Freddy Ljungberg in the 2001 Champions League against Juventus at Highbury could be easily considered his favourite as he explained how he was waiting for the midfielder to make a run, a player capable of timing his runs to perfection.

Another player with whom he was on the same wavelength was left-back Ashley Cole, now with Chelsea, with the 41-year old remembering a lot of assists crafted for the Englishman who just like Ljungberg was exceptionally good in understanding his intention.

Bergkamp, who compared the role of the assist man in “soccer” to that of a quarterback in American football, concluded by saying how for him it was like solving a puzzle, having a picture in his head and wanting to know how it would look like seconds later.

On his days at Arsenal, he said:

That was my favourite [assist], though it was not like me to have the ball at my feet all that time. I was waiting for Freddie to make his run. At that time he was always coming from somewhere and I could find him. I remember a lot of assists with Ashley Cole as well.

I’d see [Ashley Cole] out of the corner of my eye. He’d begin to move. If he stops, it’s a silly pass, but he’d keep running, because he knew what I was going to do and I’d put it just outside the far post, inside the box, and he would just come across with pace. You can’t defend that. There hasn’t been a right winger born who’ll track back that far!

You can compare it to a quarterback: you want to see and play the perfect pass. The pleasure of scoring goals is known, but for me the pleasure assist came close. It’s like solving a puzzle. I always had a picture in my head of how things would look two or three seconds later.

I could calculate it. There’s a tremendous pleasure in doing something that someone else couldn’t see