Interview

How a chance meeting saw Henry sign for us

Back in 1998, Thierry Henry found himself at a crossroads in his career - playing as a winger and makeshift wing-back for Juventus.

But a chance meeting with Arsene Wenger changed the course of history and led to him signing for us and becoming out all-time leading goalscorer.

"A few years after Arsène left Monaco, he came to watch a game between Juventus and Udinese that I played in," Henry told Arsenal Player. 

"After the match, I was going back to Paris and he was on the same plane. He told me he’d been at the game. We exchanged numbers and he told me that he didn’t understand why I was playing on the wing. At the time, I was actually playing as a wing-back! 

"He told me I was wasting my time and that he remembered me as a No 9. He said it would be great if we could meet him again, and the rest is history.

"I knew I was going to meet Arsène again, so he had a lot of influence in me coming to Arsenal. If he wasn’t there, I don’t know if Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit or Nicolas Anelka would have joined the club. 

"Arsène being there, plus having the French boys there and them telling us how amazing the English league was when we met with the national team was a factor too."