Arsenal legend Thierry Henry brought the spirit of the North London Derby to The FIFA Best Awards ceremony tonight. While accepting the FIFA Best Menโs Player on behalf of Lionel Messi, he threw in a dig the Gunners’ local rivals, Tottenham Hotspur.
After accepting the award (as the Argentinian was not on hand in London on Monday night), Thierry Henry made a joke at the expense of program co-host and Spurs supporter Reshmin Chowdhury.
Thierry Henry:
“You are a Tottenham fan right? You usually don’t get your hands on a trophy.” [Mail] ?pic.twitter.com/ZZRp0qOiQe
โ AfcVIP?? (@VipArsenal) January 15, 2024
(related: Thierry Henry asks Pep Guardiola at The FIFA Best Awards that elicits an f-bomb response)
โYouโre a Tottenham fan right?โ the TV pundit asked Chowdhury, who grudgingly admitted so.
โYou donโt usually get your hands on a trophy, so Iโll take this one.โ Henry then added, very sharply.
The crowd on hand seemed to enjoy the quip, as there was loads of laughter. Understandably so, given how Spurs haven’t won a trophy of any sort, since 2008.
However, the fact that Messi won the award is a story in itself. The Inter Miami star finished tied in the voting (48 points each) with Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, but won a tie-breaker. Haaland won the journalist vote, but Messi got the award due to the weight given to national team captains’ votes. Each of these are worth five points, and Messi took this category, and with it, the plaudit.
Not sure that is right, or just, but it “is,” no doubt about that.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager ofย The Sports Bank.ย Heโs also theย author of โTransatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,โ andย โNo, I Canโt Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.โ
Heโs written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News,ย Sports Illustratedย andย theย Chicago Tribune.ย He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for theย International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the websiteย onย Twitter.
