Thierry Henry on the USMNT's future, Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, and the 2026 World Cup: Men in Blazers 07/18/25

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0:59And desire. In fact, I list all of his accomplishments. Two Premier League titles, pair of golden boots, eight Footballer of the Year awards. The intro will be longer than both June films combined. So I'll just say it's a joy to welcome a man who is undeniably one of the best goal scorers the Premier League's ever seen. Welcome back to New York City, Mr Thierry Henry. Thank you. I think you went a bit too far with everything, but yeah. Thank you. Happy to be back, though. Love this city. And this city loves you. We are here. Thanks to our friends at Visa. And Thierry, let's start with PSG. They're a creative machine.

1:33They obliterated Inter Milan in the Champions League final. We've just seen them demolish Real Madrid in the semifinal. Your friend, Jamie Carragher, he tweeted, Watching PSG is like watching Pep's 2011 Barcelona. I can't give them a higher compliment. For you, are Luis Enrique's team in that conversation already in the greatest European club teams of all time? As far as having that type of season, yeah. Because, you know, first and foremost, you do a treble. Not a lot of teams in history did a treble. But for me, look, we always talk about individuals, but what they are doing as a team. I said in my time at Barcelona that people used to watch us, not to see us win, but to see us play.

2:18And when you reach that, you are doing something exceptional. People just want to watch Paribas Saint-Germain. and whoever it is and whatever it is, now people will talk about individual, right? They will say to you, oh, I knew Dembele was, oh, Dwey, or Vitinha, or Neves. It's a lie because a year ago, nobody was saying that they had a good team. So you have to give. This is what I'm saying sometimes. And yes, sometimes coaches can complicate stuff. But then you have coaches that will give you a possibility to express yourself, an advantage, a tactical advantage that you're going to see people play a certain way.

2:59And I always say, and I will always say, at the end of the very day, you win as a team. There's not such a thing as an individual. Yes, your team will bring you in a certain way, and the individuals sometimes in the team will make you win. It's not the other way around. But tactically, the way they're doing what they're doing, the way they're playing, and I said it again, I'm going to compare it to my boss on that time, because Jamie did. I used to love, what I used to love the most is how we used to pressurise a team. And the thing that goes around, the images that goes around is Varadzkelia running back.

3:34It's Dembele putting pressure. It's them suffocating a team. The pressure becomes mental as well as physical. Yes, they're good on the ball, right? They are good on the ball. But for me, they are better off the ball. And you win games like that because there is two phases in the game. People will tell you, gegenpressing, pressing, low block. There is two phases in the game. One, you have the ball and one, you don't have it. And when you don't have it, everybody needs to run. If not, you're not going to win. You can maybe have one guy, one guy, one guy that can be a bit more lazy than the others.

4:10But that guy needs to score four and three or two or make you win. If not, everybody needs to run. That's what I love about Paris Saint-Germain. It's contagious. It is contagious. They make you love pressing. When you look at that team, who would young Thierry Henry have loved to play with out of that PSG team out of all of them? I'll be honest, I would have been... Forget the team. I would have liked to be coached by Luis Enrique. You know, sometimes people will tell you, and I just did talk a bit about it just before, when people say, what does a coach do? That's exactly when you can turn and say, have a look at Luis Enrique.

4:47You have coaches that will be more managers. They manage the team. And then you have a coach. You can see that they're well-drilled. Some of the stuff that they do, you can see the structure, but they have the liberty within that structure. They never lose their position, but they understand well. They never lose the shape of the team, but players can move and change position within the structure. You can see sometimes you can see Hakimi on the right. Sometimes you see him as a nine. I've seen this season, if you press pause against Villa, you have wingers iron-wide and your full-back. They're your two nines.

5:29When they score that goal, when I think it's Nuno Mendes get the ball, it's Hakimi and Nuno Mendes playing as nine on the counter. How is that even possible? So that's your coach. So forget about who I would have liked to play. When you see a coach like you, like, okay, he would have given you what you need to feel comfortable on the field. And if you had your own quality, then the mix is very good, or shall I say, very explosive. Let's talk about another tournament. The FIFA Men's World Cup 2026 is just 335 days away, as we sit here. You know America so well. You talked about your love, especially this great city, New York.

6:14I want to talk about big picture, how you see the state of the game here. It's been, I don't know how, 15 years since you arrived here in the United States. Made your debut for the Red Bulls in July 2010. Scored against Tottenham Hotspur in a friendly, no less. You spent four and a half years with the Red Bulls. What was football like when you arrived? And what are the major changes that you've witnessed since? There is that talk about the love of the game here. People love the game here. And it's been like that for a very long time. We can go back to the 70s. And Pelé was here and we can name names.

6:48Stadium was full. People were coming. When you have teams coming here during the summer, I did it pre-season, stadiums are full. Full of Americans watching the game. So I do think that people love the game here. The World Cup was here also before. And if we make that transition to loving the game, than transferring to the game here and how it is here. Why is it different? It is different. And I always say to people, you know, if you are in MLS, I mean, in my time it was different, and people also that played in MLS before will tell you also, yeah, it was also different. You were lucky. Or one will tell you, we didn't have that, we didn't have this.

7:32And obviously the game has to grow and the game, the league did grow. The league did grow. Now you see guys having their own plane. My time was commercial. You know, own plane, their own stadium, their own training facilities. I remember when I arrived at the Red Bulls. You were flying coach. Yeah, we were. That's how it was. It's not a problem. But obviously, if you want to be a professional league, and in terms of recovering and coming back as quick as you can, you're not depending on being late, three hours late, four hours late. I arrived one time, we played Portland. We arrived at four in the morning in Portland because we were 12 hours late, kickoff at three.

8:09In Portland, you're coming from the East Coast. You know, all this type of thing that people are complaining now. In MLS, you play in the summer, during the summer, all year. You know, and so, but things have changed. You know, when you see how the teams are, you know, not traveling the same way, you know. Names always have been here. Let's all be honest, you always had names. You remember when the New York City FC arrived with all those guys and Galaxy and before, and now you have obviously Leo B &E and Busquets and whatnot. We can talk about it. But success also translates with your grassroots.

8:46How are you going to develop players? How are you going to make them having that attitude or that desire of not going to play basketball? You know, trying to get those guys that have that natural ability that you can develop after in terms of playing football or soccer or however you want to call it. You look at along the way from my time, I remember saying to people, be careful, you might not qualify for the World Cup one day. It will happen if you carry on sleeping. And it did happen. I won't name names, I won't say to who I said it. But it happened. Because people don't sleep. People try to see how they can progress and how they can maybe develop players.

9:29I said it so many times. If this country wants to be successful and wants to be powerful and dominate, they can dominate. Holland invented a style of play back in the days. How many people do you have living in Holland? What are we missing? What do we need for that? I'm not right. Iceland have done it. Morocco has done it. I've said it so many times. What do we need? You can't get up and say, I cannot do something today. Because you won't do it. Regardless of where it is. I woke up this morning and I struggled with my brain to go to the gym. You and me both. If you said to yourself, you know what, I'm not going to do it, then you won't do it.

10:09If you only go to the negative side of stuff, we don't have this or we cannot do this, we are this or we are that. Everybody struggles. Everybody has issues. Everybody has to fight against something. So that's it. It's a mentality. It is a mentality that you need to have. And I'm like, yeah. George, we had to leave Liberia. You think it was easy for him to get into that Milan team or Paris Saint-Germain or Monaco where you only have three foreigners going in? No, he battled. He played. Then you knew George Weyer. You are Ajkelia now. It doesn't matter where you're from. If you believe in what you can achieve, you can do it.

10:46But again, we go back to that will and to go back to also an institution. What are you doing for the grassroots? What are you doing in your local areas? That's very important. I actually don't know because I'm not within the camp to know what's happening or not. But I personally, and I said it so many times, do believe that this country can have an outstanding team. But it takes time and you have to work at it. I want to get back to that mentality. But the last World Cup was here in 1994. I think you were 60 years of age. I don't know what your dominant memory is from that period. Everything. Because that Bulgarian team, Sweden, that Brazilian side, Italy, that famous game, Nigeria, Italy, where I think they had total control of the game and suddenly Bajo happened.

11:40Bajo happened. It's true. You know, how hard it was. You remember? You know, pretty colorful. I think it was successful. How close the US were to knock out Brazil. Leonardo got sent off, if I remember well. you know Romario does a piece of magic gives it to Bebeto Bebeto side foot it into the corner but you know they lost against Brazil but this is what I'm saying that was a team that was fighting very difficult to play against I remember well yes I know Brazil went down to 10 men doesn't matter they performed but the thing is after that didn't translate to carry on but you look at the walk people were there people were watching the games people were following So there is a love for the game.

12:25I said it so many times, I do believe that. So this World Cup coming back 2026, we now have this massive audience following the Premier League, following the Champions League. This World Cup is going to take place from sea to shining sea. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle across Texas, Atlanta, up and down the East Coast. How do you imagine World Cup 2026 can move the tectonic plates even further in terms of this next phase for the game in the United States? Well, it depends. You're going to have to be successful in a certain way. That team came out of the group stage. We're not going to go back and lose against Brazil.

13:00I'll take it to, you know, what South Korea did in South Korea. Yes, people will tell me it was weird how they beat Italy. It was weird how they beat, you know, Spain. Whatever. I don't particularly care. But it was successful for them. It was successful. So you're going to need to have a host. Because people forget, it's also in Canada and Mexico. I know we are in New York. I know we're talking about the US. but it is in three different countries. So I think for me, it's always important when you have a tournament somewhere that one of the team that's there carries on. Because if not, it's not the same vibe.

13:33It's not the same thing. One of the hosts needs to go on a hero's journey. It has to be a bit. In South Korea, in Japan, we come back home quickly with France and I couldn't really grasp how it was because we came back quickly. but it's the desire and, I mean, what you're going to transmit and how you're going to transcend people by going further. Suddenly, people might want to, you know, straight after the day after, you know, you go to the semifinal, you win it or whatever it is. I'm talking in general, whatever it can be. That's what you want to do. That's the sport you want to do. When I was young, Ronald Gauras is on.

14:13I'm outside playing tennis. You know, although in my neighborhood, what you do, you put some sand, you take whatever, you try to pretend that you build a court or whatever, but that's what you do because it does bring that. The Olympic Games do that to you. Look at how successful the Olympic Games were in London and what it did after to the team, to Great Britain and how they perform and how they're still performing now in the Olympics. So yes, you still need to have some type of dream and seeing a team that does well. You know, whether it's going to be, is it going to be Mexico performing? Is it going to be the US performing?

14:48Is it going to be Canada? It looks like that Mexico recently are getting their act together from the Nation League, from the Gold Cup. You know, it is a bit different. You know, the US a bit stuttering a bit more. Canada, you thought they were on the way to do something and they struggled a bit recently. So you never know who's going to be the one that's going to perform. but obviously for a US point of view, hopefully they can do that.

15:22I'm going to talk to you about the Premier League, Arsenal fans. You in particular will not want to miss this beautiful thing, but I know you're here in partnership with Visa and Marriott Von Voy, two incredible brands that are creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences for fans, including the chance to sleep inside, I can't believe this, sounds incredible, the stadium in the suite of dreams. What do you make of that opportunity? And what does it say about how football's evolving globally? Look, this is mad. When they told me what was going to happen, I was like, no, that's no. What do you mean? You're going to have a room there at the stadium where people can sleep.

15:58All I'm thinking straight away, they're going to beat traffic. They're going to already be there. That's a good one because I'm thinking of playing in the MLS. I was like, tunnel, one hour. I was like, can I sleep there? No, joking aside, it's a great experience. You know, if you're a football lover, to be able to wake up and have that opportunity offered, obviously, by the Mariette Bonvoy and Visa, to be in that situation, to wake up and see the whole thing happening in front of you. You know, people working at the stadium coming, you're looking at it, you're looking at the announcers coming, fans slowly coming in.

16:34You know what I mean? And you're part of the whole thing, looking at it, chilling in your room. It's just unheard of. Like, who thinks about that? like that's to be fair that's a great idea Visa barrier they literally allow you to live football to slip it to everything you signed with Arsenal August 1999 you reunited with then manager Arsene Bangui known you since you were a teenager you've talked about how surprised you were initially by just how unbelievably competitive the football was its physicality there's a great story of your teammate Robert Perez sitting on the bench about to make his debut saying wow this football is not for me.

17:14And Cherry, spoiler alert, this ends well. You end up to be one of the greatest Premier League players of all time on everybody's list. But Arsene Wenger admitted you needed, quote, to be taught to believe in yourself. We've got this young audience. After eight games, they should know this man had more yellow cards than goals. We all know you now as one of the most confident footballers that has ever taken the field. But how did you build that confidence? How did you learn to believe in yourself? You obviously meet people during your career and even if they don't give you the right advice, you learn.

17:50You know, I shouldn't have listened to this guy or I'm listening to this guy. But it's just a normal process that you're going to have at one point, what I call you're going to hit the wall. It's not so much about hitting that wall. It's are you going to be able to still, you know, are you going to go for it? Are you going to go above it, around it? It depends on how long is it, how strong is it, how high it is. But at the end of the day, it's you having an answer every single time. So you need to understand, I was a 9 when I was young. I was a number 9 and I needed 20 billion chances to score a goal.

18:24I was raw, fast, and that was about it. And then obviously, after that, because I was fast, people used me as a winger. Because the number 9s were better 9 than me at that time. I'm 17, I'm 18. You have Sonny Anderson, you have Victor Higpeba at the time, you have guys that are well-recognized, nine. And so they put me on the wing because I was fast. Then you go to Juve, I play as a wingback. So, you know, you play from a wingback position to go back to Plaza nine. It's going to take time. It's going to take time. It's going to take some persuading. It's like losing your memory and not remembering what you are good at.

19:04Having to reconstruct it. Yes, you have to. And it takes time. It did take a little while, to be fair. I think I started to... I scored a couple of goals. Wasn't playing so much. You need to remember the time. Dennis was there, obviously. Mark Overmars, Nian Koukhanou. Davos Schuka. You don't have like some Mickey Mouse players in front of you. So, yeah, it took a little while. And that derby game, I think it was in October, November, whatever, I scored two and I never look back once you get that test. But people always talk about goals. you know and it is where it is nine will more often than not you know people will talk about how many did you score but the game is so much more what do you give to your team can you play on the right can you play on the left can you drop can you get that ball from midfield can you turn can you run at people can you ping a ball with your left and your right for your wingers can you slide the ball through can you hold it can you play alone up front away from home can you can Can you assist as a nine and always wait for people to feed you?

20:05You know how a nine can be. You know, I always say it bothers me when I hear people like... When I see this is why I like Paris Saint-Germain, this is why in Barcelona also, and at Arsenal there was a certain way of playing. I hate when people say, he's a nine, he's allowed to shoot. No, no, he's allowed to score. He's not allowed to shoot. You mean we have to score. whether if it's him or me we have to score I hate when you said he's a nine you want your nine to shoot from there no I want my nine to make the right decision and more often than not obviously Harry Kane in a tight angle might be better than any other player because it's Harry Kane you know when sometimes they give you the XG but they don't tell you who was behind the ball what do you mean an XG for Harry Kane in that position is not the XG of another striker in that position Harry Kane will hit the target in that position you think XG XG of whom whom which striker you know they always generalize which striker a striker in that position usually it's xg xg of who if it's hurricane the xg is higher do you understand what I mean I'm an Everton fan I understand exactly but still we have to score once you understand that and understood that this is why I always say to people what did you do to make sure that your position did evolve you need to leave something there and suddenly like I said to you because I arrived in the game as a background of playing on the left, playing on the right, playing as a nine, playing as a wing back.

21:39Suddenly, I saw the game differently. The fusion. Of course, but when you play on the wing, and I said it so many times and people love, when you play on the wing and you have to go up, not the wing now, you know, where, for example, Mo Salah is allowed to stay high and wide. Back in the days, you have to follow your fullback all the way to the corner flag. For example, Martinelli does it. Bukayo Saka does it also with Arsenal because they have a tight by four and the wingers, different wingers. It doesn't matter whatever thing it is, but when you're on the side and you go up and down the whole game and your nine is kind of stopping on the halfway line, so do the meters.

22:10It's not a lot. It's like a center back. Center back don't run a lot. They run from their box to the halfway line. Guys on the side, they go box to box the whole game. And when you deliver a cross last minute and a nine didn't move the whole game and it's the hero. I went up and down, defended and I delivered a cross on your head and you just tap it in. I did it. No, we did it. And by the way, the nine is supposed to do that and the winger is supposed to do that. But when I played as a winger, I was like, well, they don't even, they didn't realize the amount of time you go up and down. The amount of time you go up and down to deliver a ball.

22:45And so when I was there, I was like, okay, let me try to have a mix. The hybrid. Let's try to, you know, go get the ball, you know, and all of that because number nine is to stay and don't move too much from between the posts of the goal. Why? That wasn't my game. So why do you want me to stay there? Suddenly you're going to see my weaknesses. Why do you want me to stay there? I don't want you to see my weaknesses. Like I wasn't that type of striker. Some people are like that. Let them stay there. Why do you want me to be like them? I'm not like them. Like they're not like me. They're good at what they are.

23:16Let me show you what I can do. But I said it just now. Let me show you. If you don't show it, then it's a different ball game because nobody will allow you to go drop, get the ball, run at people, go on the left, shoot, curve it. You know, but you need to earn that. You need to earn that, right? Listening to you, Thierry, I'm getting so many memories of watching you over and over again. How many goals do you think prime Thierry Henry, 26, 27-year-old Thierry Henry, would score in the Premier League right now? The reality is we will never know. Someone now is going to say to me, I was faster than you.

23:50I would say to him, no, because my ego kicks him, as he should. But technically, I don't know. The only thing I can say is that you see the game, the game has changed, low block, high line, and all of that. When I'm sitting at home, I'm like, whoa, it would have been nice, but I'm sitting at home. But did this kick in a little bit? I have just too much respect for that. I know I wouldn't have looked bad. That's for sure. Let's leave it there. You can't be hypothetical about history, is what you say. It is tough. People always like to compare heroes. Like, for example, how are you going to compare being allowed to elbow someone in the face before?

24:31And now, you're out. Like, how am I going to... Defenders could do stuff that some defenders cannot do now. Like, you're asking Van Dijk now to play 60 yards, 40 yards away or 50 yards away from his goal. Defenders before were a bit more... You know, how do you compare that? It's different. It's different styles, different ways. People press higher. And by the way, you know when people say people press higher? Ian Rush was known for that. Putting pressure. When you hear people saying, oh, back in the days, what do you mean? Ian Rush was, as much as he used to score goals for fun, pressure. You can remember PTSD talking about Ian Rush.

25:09No, I'm just, I know. But I'm just saying it's not new that people go, you know, Paul Breitner used to go up and down. It's not new that fullback goes up. What's new now is what Pep did, fullbacks inside. You know, there's some stuff that are changing. But look, like I said, you know, sometimes when I see people with all the podcasts, do you prefer him or him? Do you like him or him? I'm like, why are we comparing? It's like hot air, hot air. Why are we comparing great? Just enjoy all of it. I did enjoy them. Let's enjoy them. Because at one point, if you now, you give me a player and you said to me, I prefer him.

25:46And I said to you, I prefer him. What we're going to do at that particular moment now is, I'm going to make you aware of what that guy never did, or what he doesn't like to do, or his weaknesses. And you will do the same thing. I'd come up to the perfect and die. Come up with that beautiful man. There's no weaknesses and I don't want to hear it. I do want to talk about Arsenal past and move to Arsenal present. Arteta's team coming off three straight second place finishes. You were twice a Premier League champion. You're also on teams that finished second four times. so you understand the difference between them.

26:18It's actually an incredible achievement to come second in that realm. The thin margins are so fine. What's the one thing that separates Arsenal from the trophy? Is it mindset? Is it talent? Is it tactics? Is it just luck? If you're a competitor, and we're talking about Arsenal Football Club, I don't care what people say, this is Arsenal Football Club. And I said it, for the last five years, we didn't play a final when Man United played five. Do I think that Mikel Arteta is doing a great job? Tremendous job. Do I think he should get the sack? Hell no. Am I going to think that we're going to win the league this year?