It is finally feet up time for Thierry Henry. This week he officially announced his retirement from playing and can now sit in his arm chair at home and reflect on a job well done. A glittering career has drawn to a close. Like acting greats such as Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Henry now has a body of work to truly be proud of, and any slight blemishes like an unsuccessful spell at Juventus (or ‘Meet The Fockers’) can be lost to history.
As the footballing world has reacted through the press, social media and all of the usual channels to the news that defenders everywhere had longed to hear, I’ve been left with very little new to add to the discussion. However, here goes. Thierry Henry was underrated. There, I said it. And it sounds a little weird now. How can a footballer who has won trophies all over the world and been lauded as one of the most feared strikers in the game be underrated?
Because, for whatever reason, Henry has never quite been seen in that elite bracket that has included the likes of Pelé, Maradona and most recently Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But there’s plenty of evidence to support that he should have been.
The roll of honour for Henry is staggering, the amount of trophies he has won at the highest level is actually surprising when you step back and take a look at it. He won the French league and cup with Monaco. He won two Premier Leagues and three FA Cups with Arsenal. Why don’t you ask any Arsenal fan how easy they’ve found trophies to come by since Thierry left!? With Barcelona he won the league, the cup, the Champions League, the club World Cup and all of this included a phenomenal treble in 2009.
On to the USA, where he won the MLS Supporters Shield which is awarded to the team with the best record (most points, to you and me). It’s not quite their MLS Super Bowl equivalent but impressive none the less. Lastly, away from his club career, he won the European Championships and most famously the World Cup with France.
Wow.
The first thing that jumps out at me from this is that he managed to add international honours to his trophy cabinet. Messi and Ronaldo have never done that and quite conceivably never will. Pelé and Maradona did, they won World Cups, but they never managed to achieve domestic honours in such a varied array of countries. Particularly in England.
We somewhat egotistically consider it to be the best league in the world and watch on with a slightly smug grin when foreign players grace our land and just can’t cut it. Henry cut it, there is no doubt about that. Captain of Arsenal, part of their invincible team of 2004 and their all-time leading goal scorer.
I’ll look again at that list of great players I mentioned before, Pelé, Maradona, Messi, Ronaldo. They’ve all done some of the things that Thierry did. But as far as I’m concerned none of them have done all of it. And Henry wasn’t a passenger in any of these teams. Successful teams can’t carry passengers of course, but Henry was a leader of men, a model professional and a proven goal scorer.
I’m not launching a campaign to have Thierry Henry named as the greatest player of all time. I just find it strange that he doesn’t seem to even be in the discussion.
At the age of 37 he probably could have carried on playing at a decent level. There was talk of offers from France, offers from England, offers from the retirement leagues of Qatar and Australia. But Henry has decided to bow out now with his head held high and who could begrudge him that?
Now the next chapter of his life begins as he aims to add a little suaveness to the Sky broadcasting team of Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville. He’ll probably do a good job of it, why wouldn’t he? Sky have landed quite a signing in Thierry Henry, whose well-spoken and well thought out views on football will always be a welcome addition to any broadcast. Yet, even though this would seem to be a perfect fit for him, nobody is of the impression that this is where Henry’s working life will lie. At least not forever.
Because we all know we will see him at Arsenal once again one day. He’ll likely be a coach, hell, you’d be hard pressed to bet against him one day being Arsenal manager. When you take a man like this, who has succeeded at every challenge put in front of him in the game of football, how can you write off his credentials as a manager. Or anything else he wants to be for that matter.
So there you have it. Thierry Henry, underrated. I must admit that, as a Spurs fan, this has been a difficult piece to write and one that I have had to do through gritted teeth. But then, Henry did once say that the best defender he ever played against was Ledley King. So he can’t be all bad.