Hundreds came to the station to see off their legend. Mothers came with their homemade lunchboxes, each filled with a pair of sandwiches and an apple. Daughters came with their cameras for a last minute photo sessions. Sons came with their shirts and pens for the legend to put his signature on. Dads came with heavy hearts, realising that they wouldn't live to see another of his sort.

As the train smoked out of the London station, the legend waved a fond goodbye from the window. He even trudged to the door, leaned out and continued waving his hand. At one point when he saw those tears streaming out of his supporters' eyes, he too couldn't resist and a tear rolled down his cheeks. He even thought of getting down from the train and rushing back to his 'home' but he couldn't and he didn't.

Thierry Henry had done all he could with Arsenal. He had won the Premier League title twice, the FA Cup thrice and had led them to the final of the UEFA Champions League. He is the club's all-time leading goal scorer, all-time leading scorer in Europe and was voted Arsenal's greatest ever player in a poll.

And so the French international striker came to his new destination: Barcelona. He arrived as a €24 million signing - another Galactico. Greeted by 30,000 fans at Camp Nou, he started relishing the prospect of being an honourable member of the footballing Fantastic Four, a quartet that also comprised of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi.

And for a while, it did indeed look that he would be able to live a fairytale and play gloriously at one of the truly great European football clubs. He had observed how his long-time rival for the 'best striker in the Premier League' tag, Ruud van Nistelrooy, had gone to Real Madrid the season previously and had won the Pichichi with 25 goals in the league at the age of 30. Henry is a year younger and has more pace, more grace, better technique and would certainly be a hit in Spain. And indeed he was a hit initially, scoring against Olympique Lyonnais in the UEFA Champions League and then hitting a hat-trick against Levante in La Primera Division ten days later. There was every reason to believe that Henry would conquer Spain too.

But then the train got derailed. Barcelona, in 2006-2007, had endured their first trophyless season in three years and coach Frank Rijkaard was under pressure. It was marked as a disaster for a club that had played the best football in Europe for three years with the best player (Ronaldinho), the best young player (Lionel Messi) and the best striker (Samuel Eto'o) in their ranks.

In the 2007-2008 season, Barcelona tumbled down the ropes and spiralled into the abyss. Rijkaard lost the plot, Eto'o lost his temper, Ronaldinho lost his fitness and Messi was lost to the muscle strain that many believe is a knock-on effect of his taking medication to grow taller. And in his first season in Spain, Henry lost his scoring touch, ending the season with only 12 goals in the league and three in the Champions League.

But perhaps more importantly, Henry had lost his place as the central thread in the plot. At Arsenal, the game was always built around him; at Barcelona he had to build the game around others. Playing in the unusual left wing position and not in his preferred central position, Henry often found himself marginalised. He didn't find the space or the freedom to run at defenders as he did in England. His darting runs along the left channel often froze before they even began, the dribbling didn't seem to hoodwink the defenders and the sprinter's pace appeared to have deserted him.

Henry's off-pitch loneliness was also obvious. He consistently complained that he was missing his daughter, who was with his estranged wife back in London. All these elements gave birth to rumours about Henry returning to the Premier League in the summer of 2008. Just as a certain Michael Owen had returned to the Premier League after one season in La Liga, a Premier League maestro appeared to be failing in La Liga.

Only, Henry didn't move back and wasn't a failure. Twelve goals had come in 27 league starts and 19 goals in all competitions made him Barcelona's top scorer in 2007-2008. There were 9 assists to his name in La Liga; only Messi had given more assists in the league for Barca with ten.

At the start of the 2008-2009 season, new Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola assured the Frenchman that he was in his plans and that he would play regularly. Henry has started 22 Liga games this season, scoring 15 goals and creating seven others. He has scored five times in the Champions League already and has assisted in three more.

And what's more, Henry has played in the same position he had played last season: on the left. But this time he is enjoying himself. This time, with Ronaldinho chucked out, he has been given more freedom to do what he wants to on the left; this time he has been given the licence to drift to the centre when necessary; this time he has learnt to utilise less space and less freedom to full extent.

But perhaps more importantly, Henry has developed a rather frightening understanding with the best player in the world, Lionel Messi. They play on either side of the pitch but can see each other even from 50 miles afar, so cohesive their understanding of each other's game is. He is a friend to Eto'o and has taken youngster Bojan under his wings.

Thierry Henry left Arsenal because he realised that he had achieved all he could with them and because David Dein had left. He had spent most of his career at Highbury and perhaps in the end they will prove to have been his best years. But at Barcelona, he has found himself among his own, among people who can match his genius. No, this is not to undermine his former Arsenal team-mates- the likes of Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp were all world class - but when they had gone, Henry was the sole superstar left in the team.

Now he is one among many superstars and is playing in Catalunya, where football is more than a game and where the club is 'more than a club'.

The Barcelona Henry might not be the Arsenal Henry - he might not score wonderful solo goals running the entire length of the pitch or putting his signature on a cunning chip - but at Camp Nou he has found the team player in himself.

But he still retains that burst of pace, that ability to run at defences, that touch of genius to curl the ball into the top corner from the opposite side with a delicate curve and more importantly, he retains the genius to score goals at canter.

Thierry Henry is, in one word, unstoppable. Just as he was at Arsenal.

Subhankar Mondal, Goal.com

 

Henry is quality... I always feared him at Arsenal. This last goal rendered me speechless:

YouTube - Henry street football

 

love that Nike ad-camp

 

Red suits him better!

 

^^^^
haha I can appreciate that but atleast you had him at his prime

 

Henry is a walking legend, I respect his attitude towards the game, he doesn’t have a wild life, always do his best in practice and doesn’t complain when he sets n bench....

Barcelona won the deal for sure... nonetheless he made his name there in Arsenal

Hamad thanks for sharing

 

I was quite upset when he left Arsenal, but the consolation was that Barca is my "other" team.

He'll definitely be remembered in history as a Gunner...

YouTube - Best Goal Of Thierry Henry