Thierry Henry

Thierry Henry did not arrive in England as a centre-forward. Arsène Wenger had used him on the left wing at Monaco, and a short spell at Juventus in 1999 brought only three goals against Serie A's disciplined defences. At Arsenal, Wenger moved him into the middle. He went his first eight games without scoring and admitted he had to "be re-taught everything about the art of striking", yet still finished that season with 26. What followed was a forward built on speed and calm. He liked to collect the ball deep or wide and run at the back line, and at his physical peak he could glide past defenders at full speed without losing control. He learned his precise shooting, his father said, by watching his idol Marco van Basten. His trademark finish came from the left: cut inside, then place the ball into the far right-hand corner. He rarely looked rushed one-on-one with a goalkeeper, and he loved to drift offside, step back onside and spring the trap as the pass was played. Wenger said he could pick up the ball in midfield and score "a goal that no one else in the world could score". He was never just a penalty-box striker. Drifting out to the left made him a creator as well as a scorer, and in 2002–03 his 24 league goals and 20 assists were a combination nobody in Europe's top five leagues had produced before. He took Arsenal's penalties and free kicks and liked a no-look pass, shaping with his right foot and playing the ball with his standing left. The obvious gap was in the air: for all his athleticism, he never gave Arsenal a real heading threat. Henry was the league's top scorer for the unbeaten Invincibles of 2003–04, took a record four Premier League Golden Boots and won the European Golden Shoe twice. As captain, he later admitted, his "habit of screaming for the ball" meant team-mates sometimes fed him when he was badly placed. He left for Barcelona in 2007 after an injury-wrecked season, and a short loan return in 2012 lifted his club-record tally to 228. At Barcelona he played mostly on the left again, and in 2008–09 he formed a front three with Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto'o as Barça won the treble. For France he was the team's top scorer at the 1998 World Cup, won Euro 2000, scored the golden goal that settled the 2003 Confederations Cup final and left international football as the country's record scorer with 51 goals. There were blemishes: a red card for a dangerous sliding challenge against Uruguay in 2002, and the 2009 play-off against Ireland, when he handled the ball twice before crossing for the decisive goal. Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith called him "an athlete with great technical ability and a tremendous desire to be the best."