The great Lionel Messi has made an admission that there was one player whom he truly admired inside the Barcelona locker room during his first years on top of the world of football.
Hailed by many, both fans and experts of the game, as the best ever player of all time, even a player of Messi’s status had a slice of humble pie in the presence of one of his former team-mates in those early days of his career at Barca.
The Argentinian warmly opened up in an interview with L’Equipe reminiscing about his early days inside Barcelona’s locker room, and named one player he had actually looked up to during his first seasons at Camp Nou, fondly recalling the reasons why he had so much respect for this particular player.
“When Thierry Henry first entered the locker room, I couldn’t dare to look him in the eyes. I knew about everything he had done in England. I had created an image of him, and all of a sudden we were both in the same team,” Messi reminisced wistfully.
Instantly generous and effusive in his praises for his former team-mate, Messi was quick to add that Thierry’s overall skills made everything he did on the pitch look seemingly easy and effortless.
“I loved Henry’s quickness to end an opportunity, how he made his way to end in front of goal and find the back of the net. It seemed like something natural. The way he ran, his dribbling skills, his gestures to score. It was something that felt just right. What I feel for ‘Titi’ can fall in the category of admiration,” Messi enthused.
Henry played alongside Messi for three years, scoring 49 goals in 121 appearances for Los Blaugranas. Both the superstars were key for Barcelona’s historic 2008-09 season, winning all six tournaments they played for.