Thierry Henry

Welcome Thank you Jessica: It's a real pleasure to have, a footballer of your credentials, with us today. And I think, I don't think I'm overegging it when I say one of the iconic players of our time. And watching that video, laying out your glittering career before you how do you feel when you see that?

I'm just reminded of a quote by a man that you know quite well, Arsene Wenger, who described you as the greatest striker ever, the Michael Jordan of football Thierry Henry: Oh, I don't know about that Humble That's a, that's a big one. Did he say I was a pain in the neck also in the neck quote? No, he didn't No but no, when I.

First and foremost, hi, everyone. Sorry. But I you know, when I look at this is nothing is impossible. That's what I think of.

But nothing is impossible obviously because you have a group around you that makes it possible for you. That's what I think of. You know, at the beginning of my career you you tend to think about the I in the process because you need to make your way in a group sometime that was already formed, and you need to have an impact so.

And to try to find out who you can be and what player you can be. And then at the end of a career and throughout the career, you start to understand that without your mates you're, you're no one.

So when I look at this, although the pictures and they were my goals and stuff like that, but it reminds me of the whole process of it and how you can achieve stuff when everyone kind of trusts each other. And and that's something that's not, It's, it's, it's almost kind of a thing that people do not do anymore, especially in a group.

Being honest with each other is, it's very key. Having arguments, also is very key. It's healthy, as long as, it is for the cause of the group which means winning and getting trophies.

So that's what, that's what I think of when I see that Jessica: It is interesting. I've seen interviews with you before where you've said if a player scores a goal for their team but the team doesn't go on to win, those goals should be discounted Yeah That's incredible That's the point So it's nothing No, listen. Your personal success? Thierry Henry: Well, it's just something that you can share when you're done.

I kind of, bother my kids with that now with the goals that I used to score and stuff like that. But I think for me, one of the most important thing is did it matter in the game? Did did it matter?

Did it matter in the game? Sorry. That's, that's, that's what you're there for. You're there to score goals and win the game.

I wasn't interested at the end of a game of, if we lost a game and I was going to at least, you know, I scored two. No, scored two, they need to mean something in the game. And if it didn't mean anything, then even when, in all fairness, I did score goals and we won, I wasn't always happy.

Or shall I say satisfied. But yes, it's, it's discounted. I went a bit too far, but it's the, it's, it's an image that I always say that, "And you scored two, you lost 4-2.

What's the, what's the big deal out of that?" Incredible. Might sound harsh. Sorry. But keep you on your toes You're clearly a perfectionist then Well, I think, I don't know if everyone is, but that's.

I always, I say that you showed something yesterday, that doesn't mean it's gonna be the same on the day after. And so I always see it as it's a new race the day after. We're all on the same starting point.

Let's see who's gonna win that race again today. So I don't live in the past. Although you need the, you need the past to be present in the future.

That's what I always say, but you know, the present is actually the moment that we're living right now, so I was trying to live at that, particular moment. And the only time you can go back and start to think about your, what you've done is when it's done. Now I can. That's what I said to you.

I bother my kids with it. But at the time that you're active, you need to think about what's coming next Jessica: So let's just take it back then to when you were a young child. Did you I as I understand it, you used to play, in your cousin's bedroom with a tennis Yes, that's very true.

Kicking the tennis ball around the Yeah. When you were just five, six years old. Did you ever envisage at that point Champions League winner, World Cup winner, European Championship winner, fifth on the all-time Premier League scoring list?

No. Did you dream big? Thierry Henry: You know what I was thinking at that particular moment? That we're gonna be in trouble if my mom walks in or my auntie.

That's the only thing I was thinking of. And we thought we were clever. We're smashing the ball against walls, and when they walk in we're like.

They heard us. But you think you're that clever when you're young. That's. No, I didn't think about that. I never put myself in this type of situation.

I always thought that, I always said to myself the rest will take care of itself. Work hard, try to add tools, in your game, and whatever happen will happen. But you need to be, you need to be that guy that's gonna put something on the table for the coach to work with, you know?

And be, like I said before, that pain in the neck in a good way to challenge your coach because that's, that's what you're supposed to do also, you know? Cause him trouble in a good way, by the way. But I never, I never thought I was going to do what I did, and I think it's good also because you need to leave something, you know, up in the air sometime.

You can't, you can't always, guess what's gonna happen. It might have been a dream of. I must have said it sometimes with my friend, "Oh, I'm scoring the last goal of the game."

But a lot of people said that and it didn't happen for them, so, But what I wanted to do is to be prepared to be able to perform and like I say and I used to say, the rest will take care of itself Jessica: So you mentioned there giving the coach something to work with. Now, one of the greatest coaches you've obviously ever worked Mm-hmm.

Arsene Wenger, who you've described as a father figure. Yes How much do you think your success is not down to him but was nurtured by him and allowed you to realize your potential? The boss, Arsene Wenger, You still call him the boss?

Thierry Henry: Anyone that I had as a boss, I call them boss It's difficult for me to break that barrier. I will be the same way until I die. But that's, that's, that's only me.

But the boss had an impact on me mentally, so he unlocked some doors that were locked for me and and showed me the way and made me understand the player that I could be. But then after, he gave me that freedom to be the player that you could be, but you have to embrace embrace it, sorry, and grab it.

Very important. And to an extent, I thought that I did, I did that in a way. But he had that amazing way of talking his way out of a box. You know, and it's well documented.

I used to go in his, in his office upset for whatever reason. I don't receive the ball in the right time, or why I'we're not playing like this or like that. And I remember going in his office, I'm gonna tell him this, I'm gonna tell him that, and I used to leave his office.

I didn't tell him anything. And he told me what he wanted to tell me, and I close the door, I'm like, "Hang on a minute." And I used to leave the room with a smile, not worrying about what I worried before, and being happy with what's coming next.

He had that impact on people where I think at one point, a boss. So people always talk about what's happening on the field, but a boss needs to have also the quality to get you mentally and unlock that and trigger your brain. Mm. It's very important because you have a lot of coaches that can tell you, "I can, I can make you stronger.

I can make you know, bigger. Might work on your, on your, on your work tactically." But not a lot of coaches can say, "I'm gonna make you smarter.

I'm gonna make you make sure that you're gonna use your brain, on the field the right way." And he was one of those coaches. Jessica: Did he help you off the field as well, do you feel?

Yeah. Yeah. Big time. How so? Thierry Henry: We used to talk about, anything and everything. And just him, his calmness.

I mean, I don't know if you guys, a lot of people know him. I'm sure you must have. Seeing him, he has a way to talk to you to calm you down and tell you the right thing.

Don't ask yourself the wrong question. That also something that helped me a lot in the game. I used to try to put the fault on others before when I was a, when I was a player, and I started to think, how can I move and and help those guys in function of how they play?

You know, instead of them, adapting to me, I had to adapt my game to them. That's why he was always saying to me, and that helped me a lot, ask yourself the right question. Can that guy see you?

In my mind, he could, but technically, maybe not in the way that I want it to, so you have to make a run where that guy possibly can see you and the other one, make it different because he can see you a different way. And you start to play in function of who you are, who you have around, and that's, that's down to him to.

Again, he unlocked that door that I started to start to play with that guy. I'm gonna move like this. These guys, I need to, I need to drop 'cause his, head is never up.

Whatever it was, in my mind, I started to understand the movement I need to make in function of who had the ball. Jessica: You described yourself as a pain in the neck, and I know that when you do when you were a player and you did interviews, you had a question that you didn't like, you would tell the journalist.

Understandable. If someone, a colleague on the pitch did something that you didn't like, you would have the confidence to tell them. Did that come from Arsene Wenger as well, or is that something that's always been within you? Have you always been quite a resolute character?

Thierry Henry: I understood early, sorry, in my career that we're here for the cause. We're not here to be friends or go out or whatever it was, or be nice. We're here to win.

That's one of the most important thing, and you need to do anything in order because you. It's like if I see you and you're about to do something, and I was, by the way, expecting the same, from me.

I wanted you to tell me if I'm not, I wasn't being all right on the day or not putting 100%, in the game because that would have woke me up, and you need that at times. And so that's how I was, but it's, it was always for the good, the good of the, of the game and for the team.

So I was always saying what I had to say and at times it's not always nice because as you can imagine on the field, you can't really be eloquent all the time and and use nice, use, sorry, nice words.

Sometimes they're not that great, and the emotion that goes through your body doesn't, doesn't come out well in what you wanna say and how you say it and how you should say it. But you can't, you can't put any sugar on it or or make it better than what it was. And so, yeah, I was very much in, people's faces.

In my own face also, I expected a lot from my, from myself and a lot from my teammates and they expected the same from me. That is why I did find myself in teams where we more often than not, ended up, winning something at the end of the season because we had that all together within the dressing room.

Jessica: Yeah. You won a fair few things, didn't you? Thierry Henry: With the team, yes. Yes. It's very important.

Like I said to you need to, have guys around that, guys around that gonna understand what you're all about, understand your brain, understand, that sometime you might lose it and but it's for the good of the team. And the guys that I played with understood that, and like I said to you I understood them, too. Jessica: Thierry, who are some of the greatest players you played with?

Oof. Dennis Bergkamp has to be one, doesn't he? Thierry Henry: Well, I can name a lot, 'cause I had the opportunity to play with a lot of great players and you know, Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, you know, I Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane. But I played with some guys that I will not even qualify as human in terms of, we're talking football, obviously, with all due respect.

We're talking football 'cause Lionel Messi is not human for me. What he does is not, it's not normal. Really not normal. You I don't know if you guys are realizing what the guy is doing, but this is not normal what he's doing.

And Zizu the same, Zidane. Zizu, sorry. And the other guys. But when we go back to the normal people, human Dennis Bergkamp is the best player that I played with.

Why? Because of, guys, what you didn't see is his commitment every day in training and his desire. When he was a great Dennis Bergkamp, he could have take it easy sometime in training, and nothing was easy with Dennis. If he had to make a pass there, he was making that pass there.

If he had to control left, pass right 100 times, he was doing that 100 times. And he was always doing what the, what the game was asking him to do when he can do something else. Play simple, that's one of the most difficult thing, and great players do that.

They stay simple when sometime you might showboat or whatever. No, they stay simple, and Dennis had that in him, the way he was training. Also, he's the player that I played the longest with.

Mm. But understand, huh, then you have the freaks up there, but human beings, then Dennis Bergkamp, yeah. Jessica: And now you're on the other side Yeah. I guess. You're working alongside the media as a pundit.

How much attention did you pay to pundits if they had criticized you or made a comment about you and do you now get in trouble for criticizing players that perhaps you know and might actually be friends with? Thierry Henry: When I was a player, I tend to. When stuff were outside of the game and it was a bit personal, I used to go like, "Talk about the game.

You don't have to be, go to the, to the other side." And I think you have to understand that sometime you're not, you're not playing well or you did, you did a mistake. It's when it went outside of the game and people were taking it, on a, you know, a personal point of view, I used to, I used to just set it out with the person usually.

I used to have that, like I said, when I have something to say, I say it to someone. Now on another side, it's kind of difficult because, for example, I look at the shirt there with the, on the screen. Whenever I talk about Arsenal, it, whenever I just say something, it goes everywhere.

It is what it is. You. They play well, I'm saying they're playing well. I hear it's biased because he's an Arsenal fan.

When they don't play well, "How dare you saying that about Arsenal?" What shall I say? You know, it's, it's difficult.

You have to call it ultimately what you see in the game and try to call the game out. I try to stay in the game and what happened in the game and not what's happening outside of the game. It's not an easy one because some of the guys that I played against, some of the guys that I played with still, yeah, a lot actually.

So yeah, but you have to call what you see, and it's not that easy. I've, I will be honest, especially when it comes down to Mm. For me. But and even more so especially because I had to talk about my old boss.

Not a lot of people are pundits and they have to talk about their old boss. It's not an easy one, but I you know, I had, I had to do it. I'm doing it. And it is what it is, but I'm enjoying it.

Jessica: I think everyone can, join me in thanking Thierry Henry. Thank you for your insight. Thank you for your honesty.

Thank you. Thank you for being with us. Thierry Henry: Thank you. Thank you.