Th. Henry to Spain

  "Barcelona" (Stephen Sondheim, 1970)

There's a respectful piece at the Guardian by Sid Lowe about Thierry Henry's move to FC Barcelona (from Arsenal) -- where he was welcomed by 25,000 Barcelona regulars at Camp Nou this week.

Henry's football may have appeared to peak at Arsenal where all roads in the scheme of play fed him out in the flats with space to turn on the jets and score, often with a clever out of step toe-poke. Henry's deceptive use of his speed and his coolness around the box -- his audacious daring-do to shoot unexpectedly from unlikely positions -- are his hallmarks.

Barcelona will probably not feature him the same way, what, with Ronaldinho, E'to & Messi, each to dazzle. So it will be easy to tag Henry -- one of the very best footballers of this generation, now age 29 -- as "over the hill". This is likely to happen even if he is performing perfectly but modestly in a role for the Catalans. Above all, he brings the winning attitude which is very influential within a club. That has no price. Good move for Barcelona.

In addition to the quality of his football, Thierry Henry is one of the classiest individuals in the game -- an authentic gentleman. If his sciatica remains at bay after his rest this year, we should see a fair amount of the Frenchman in the Blue&Red.

Comments

[John]

Henry's move to Barca didn't work out too well looking back at the season. I am not surprised by that. He was a god playing in England, so that's hard to duplicate anyways. Then he has team mates like Messi, Ronaldinho, etc. Kinda like too many good cooks ni the kithcne...