Why Thierry Henry Is The Greatest Player To Ever Grace The Game

There are only two things in this world I will never understand; If there is a God, then why does he let bad things happen? And how did Thierry Henry never win the World Player of the Year Award?

My Arsenal bias aside, for me, Thierry Henry is one of the most underrated players ever to play the game and one of the greatest ever as far as I’m concerned.

In terms of pure goalscoring at the top level, Thierry is near on untouchable. He smashed Arsenal’s goalscoring record set by the great Ian Wright, and has won every major international honour going and every league title in every league he’s played in. He’s also won The Champions League, countless FA Cups, Copa del Reys, and even a UEFA Super Cup and Fifa World Club Cup to boot.

Added to that, he’s France’s all time top goalscorer, third in the list of all time Premier League goalscorers (only behind Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole) and the highest scoring foreigner to play in England. He’s also got a shed load of personal awards and accolades, and was voted the greatest foreign player ever to play in the Premier League.

And his goalscoring record for Arsenal is bordering on the unbelievable. His first season in England (the one where players need to “settle” into the league) he notched up 26 goals in all competitions. After that, he scored 22, 32, 32, 39, 30, 33 and 12 in the next 7 campaigns.

On paper then, Henry’s record is flawless.

But it’s not just records where the king excels. His recent comeback to Arsenal has been an emotional roller coaster for Arsenal fans, and something of a fairytale for supporters and the man himself.

Fernando Torres, a man with 18 games and 0 goals (I believe, I can’t be bothered to check) was bought for £50 million only a year ago. Thierry Henry, a man who has been away from England for 6 years has had a total playing time of 96 minutes, and scored 3 goals – 2 of them dramatic match winners.

Have legends like Zidane, Maradona or Pele managed to do this? The simple answer is no.

And besides all that, it is Thierry’s level of consistency at the highest level which makes him the greatest for me. He has played 17 seasons at the top top level – for Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal and Barcelona – and raked up 316 goals in 4 of the best leagues in Europe. This gives him an average of 19 goals per season, which is hugely impressive in itself. Take the goals per season average just for the Arsenal and Barcelona campaigns then the average is even more impressive, giving exactly 25 goals per season. And that includes his injury-ravaged final seasons at both clubs.

You have players like Messi, Maradona, Ronaldo, Pele, Zidane, Platini, Best, etc. who could be considered the greatest ever but have any of them maintained a 17 year consistency like Thierry Henry?

And Henry has lit up so many matches and given the fans so many special moments it’s hard to count how many there have been.

My final argument for Henry being the greatest is that he won the league several times, was part of the team that went unbeaten a whole season and won other honours with Arsenal. Arsenal are a fantastic side with a beautiful history, but it’s not unreasonable to say we are not one of the most, how can I put this, naturally biggest football clubs. We are competing at the top level because of Arsene Wenger but we don’t have the bottomless pit of money other teams such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and others have.

So in that sense, Thierry’s accomplishments are even more outstanding. He didn’t join a massive club when he arrived so to do all he has done is all the more impressive. He didn’t achieve his honours and records with a team such as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Manchester United.

I’m not saying players like Messi, Ronaldinho, Zidane and Ronaldo aren’t great, but it is much easier to achieve honours and accolades with a more prestigious football club with the infrastructure to bring in the worlds best players.

You might think I’m crazy, but Thierry Henry is not just the king of Arsenal, but he is the king of football.

Cue the abuse!

Last Minute Edit: I’ve also just checked and of the all-time greatest goalscorers Thierry Henry has the best goals to goals per game ratio, at 0.68, compared to the next best of Alan Shearer who’s record is 0.59 goals per game.

 

15 thoughts on “Why Thierry Henry Is The Greatest Player To Ever Grace The Game

  1. Wow! You sure summer the second question up! You did you research well. I totally agree on TH14. But not on the first question. It may sound strange, but God lets bad things happen because He loves us… He gave us free will, case love can not be forced. Minkind made, and continues to make, bad choices, which gives us these results. Not only the unbearable injustice for TH14, but all the pain in history. I beileve I’ve read that 95% of all suffering is a the fault of other people. However I always seem to screw things up for myself, by myself. But there will come a time when justice will be done! Who knows, maybe He will even sort out the discussion about the best player in the world?

     
  2. ..and there was me thinking it was Dennis Bergkamp all these years. Lucky us, to have them both, no wonder we were so feckin awesome.
    Titi has to be worth a retrospective football immortality award, and yes it is a bit much he never won it but hey, we all know, don’t we?
    I reckon he would have got it if we’d have beaten Barcelona in 2006, but it all came down to that one on one…

     
  3. Goals do not really mean anything. Just because Shearer has scored the most goals in the EPL it doesn’t mean he is the best ever EPL striker.

    PELE IS THE BEST EVER PLAYER!!!

     
    • Pele was crap and only beat up crap teams, watched every world cup game he played in, and if he was so good why did he not leave brazil?

      maradona is twice the player pele was.

       
  4. About HIS(GOD) existence is sure GOD exist,settled.Don’t of existence it’s settled HE exist but talk of HIS love.GOD doesn’t love everybody.How can you say HE will punish you while you say HE is the ONE written bad destiny about you to choose that bad path that leads to your punishment or HE is the ONE that gives bad emotions/characters to People and the ONE to punish them behaving so.

     
    • Indeed, God doesn’t love everybody.

      He hates Spurs, and isn’t too keen on that Blackburn player he stamped on.

       
  5. For God o loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16.
    God created us as beings with free will. If we exercise our free will to choose the wrong things that leads to consequence, then we should not blame Him fr that.

     
  6. TH14 is only ever player who you can truly say is both a great goal scorer AND a scorer of great goals.

    He is still doing it in MLS (where other greats have failed) & for a make shift striker it’s an achievement that people forget he won everything worthwhile such as the European championships & world cup to thoses that are meaningless like the confederations cup & the community sheild.
    Finally people forget that whenever he played he was always kicked piller to post but still took it.

     
  7. Stats are always interesting, but sheer grace, athleticism and drama were a feast for the eyes with Thierry Henry. He turned football into a ballet and made it more than football. The great players make football more than football. I have seen just a few players who could do that. George Best was one. But Henry ticked all the boxes and along with Bergkamp and Pires brought us the greatest entertainers as the ‘invincibles’. The most entertaining I have seen. At his peak he was more enjoyable to watch than Messi or Ronaldo. Note I am not saying he was a better player than them, just a greater artist and gave a joy that great art and artists give.. His goals were something to behold. Sorry for the Eulogy but he gave me so much joy in football that our present day players never live up to my expectations. Here’s hoping Mesut Ozil will take up the challenge.

     
  8. TH14 indeed!…to drift a bit, God Loves everybody. He has feelings and wants a relationship, we want religion. When we genuinely sincerely seek Him we find Him. He gave us a free will and sometimes we suffer bad things not because of ourselves but because of the bad choices and lifestyle made by our parents and fore farthers the same bad choices God said would affect our children and descendants…the question is what should I do to make that cycle end? The other question should be what has God done about it?….start genuinely seeking When we do He will find a way to reveal Himself.

     
  9. People often forget how many assists he made and how unselfish he was. God help us all if he was actually greedy (like Cristiano Ronaldo), who knows how many goals he would have scored then.

    Also, he took penalties but not all of them. And he was regularly taking freekicks and corners as well.

    #Henrying

     

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