Sometimes when a buddy has your back, he ends up making a complete hash of absolutely, utterly everything.
Emmanuel Petit sat down for an interview with French website Sport.fr yesterday, to promote a children’s charity project he is involved in. When his 20-minute Q&A was over, the former Arsenal midfielder had managed to offend Ireland, Wayne Rooney and any French person affected by the German invasion during World War Two. Actually, it was pretty much every French person ever.
Petit was asked for his favourite memories of his time playing with Thierry Henry, who looks set to retire after leaving the New York Red Bulls at the weekend. Surprisingly, given their World Cup win together in 1998 and countless medals for Arsenal, Petit fondly recalls when ‘Titi’ first arrived at Monaco, seven years his junior but with all the confidence of a veteran.
It was when Petit was queried on the muted French response to Henry’s likely retirement that the mental pin was pulled. He began, ‘People do not like Thierry Henry. In England, he has a statue. It means a lot to him. He is revered there, you know?
‘What can we blame Henry for? His handball against Ireland? He helped France qualify for the World Cup in South Africa! He has done nothing wrong.
‘France is hypocritical and cowardly. Sometimes I think that if we’d been overrun by the Germans, we’d be better run.’
Petit suggested that Henry gets bad press in France and compared him to Wayne Rooney, who he feels is less than perfect on and off the pitch. He added, ‘Henry is not hated but he’s certainly not loved. He got screwed by the French press after his handball and has since not spoken to the French media.
‘In France, he has no interaction with the press but so what? Perhaps because he was not smiling when he scored for France. Well, that’s what I hate in this country. I have great difficulty with the French, I have never seen such arrogant, smug, lying and hypocritical people.’
