Generally accepted to be the best footballer in the world, there can’t be too many players that Lionel Messi looks up to, but one in particular left him completely star struck the first time he entered the Barcelona dressing room.
According to L’Equipe, cited by the The Sun, the Argentinian couldn’t even look Thierry Henry in the face when he first joined the club from Arsenal.
“The first day he entered the dressing room, I didn’t dare look at his face,” Messi remembered. “I knew everything he had done in England. I had a picture of him made and suddenly we were on the same team.
“What I feel for Titi is best described as admiration. I loved Henry’s ease at finishing his chances, as he takes the path to goal and ends the play.”
Though Messi may have been overawed during their first meeting, it didn’t take them long to strike up an understanding.
Indeed, long before MSN or even the brilliant Messi, Pedro, David Villa attacking trio, there was Henry, Messi and Samuel Eto’o running rings around La Liga defences as well as conquering Europe in the 2009 Champions League final against Manchester United.
Henry would leave the Camp Nou a year later, but Messi certainly made an impression upon him too. The Sun note the Frenchman’s words from back in 2016 when he said “Sometimes I ask myself if Messi is human.”
That’s undoubtedly a question many others before and since have probably asked themselves too.