“Bruh, not everyone can do that!”
Thierry Henry once humiliated his teammates during his time with New York Red Bulls, just so he could prove a point to his peers.
To be fair, if you’re Thierry Henry – Arsenal’s all-time top goal scorer, Premier League Hall of Fame member, World Cup champion and treble winner with Barcelona – it must have been difficult to train with the mere mortals of ‘regular’ footballers.
When you posses the power to accelerate past four players in one straight sprint, whip out more tricks than a clown car, and bend the ball into the net in any direction you so choose, then really the only thing that is limiting you, is your teammates.
After solidifying a career in North London so legendary that they literally built a statue of him, then going to Barcelona to win every trophy available in a single season, the Frenchman went stateside to New York Red Bulls.
However, his time in the MLS, although clearly a step down from his usual standard and during the twilight of his career, did not mean that Henry expected anything less from himself, or those around him.
The 45-year-old recently appeared on the Lade Out podcast, alongside Red Bulls teammate Bradley Wright-Phillips, who is sixth on the all time top scorers list in the league.
Wright-Phillips told one story of how Henry seemed to expect as much from his teammates as he did himself.
“I’m not asking you to take the ball and dribble past everyone,” Henry said, trying to explain that he didn’t expect the players to be on his level.
“Oh, well, one time,” Wright-Phillips interjected, before going on to tell the story.
“One time we’re training. So the midfield, were trying to build out and got to score. We’re attacking, we’re doing build out.
“The midfielders at the time, they weren’t turning and they weren’t playing forward and I made the mistake of saying to T[hierry Henry], ‘Hey they’re all moaning saying it was too tight.’
“And T was like, ‘It’s not tight.’
“And I go T ‘It’s kind of tight’
“He looked at me like ‘Oh it’s too tight?’
“And I was like ‘they’re struggling.’
“So he runs back, gets the ball from the keeper, turns, bodies someone, dribbles past someone, plays me in, and I score.
“He’s just…I know now, as I’m jogging back, he’s going to be looking, I look and he’s like ‘Is it still too tight? Is it still?’
“And I was just like “Bruh, not everyone can do that!”
Henry explained, “It’s tough as a player because, like for me, I could see that it wasn’t tight. Because with my abilities and what I could see.”
Related links:
The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10
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