Thierry Henry Has Daddy Issues

It’s not quite an Oedipal therapy session, but injured Arsenal striker Thierry Henry explains here how his “really heavy, really heavy” father imbued his incapacity for happiness into his son. It was that never-be-satisfied attitude, says Henry, that has led the Frenchman to be one of the world’s best goal scorers.

Let’s get into the TH14 way-back machine:

“When he first took me in his arms as a baby, he didn’t say I was cute or ugly or looked like anyone, he just said, ‘This boy is going to be a great footballer’. He used to take me to see Paris St Germain and I remember when I was eight, he had this argument with another fan. And he turned to this guy and said, ‘See that boy there? He’s going to be on TV soon, playing football’. And the other guy just laughed at him.

Dad’s never really happy, he always wants more. I’m like that. That’s what he drummed into me — never settle for what you have. After a game, I think about the goals I missed, not the goals I scored. That’s why I seem to be sulky on the pitch sometimes.”

Oooookay.

So, Thierry is focused and generally makes good decisions on the pitch. Just don’t ask him to choose between never scoring again and…never scoring again:

“One question Henry could not really answer was what he would do if forced to choose between never scoring a goal again or never having sex again.

He laughed: ‘Never score a goal or never have sex? My God, you ask me to choose the impossible — it’s like “do you want to die or do you want to die?”.’”

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Category: Arsenal News