“
Crying was impossible.
You couldn't show your weaknesses.
In the columns of L'Equipe, Thierry Henry reveals how it was sometimes difficult for him, during his career, to manage moments of doubt or less well.
"
It was: '
Thierry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry!'
' I've cried, alone, but I struggled not to break down.
Now I cry.
»
If he finds that speech has been freed today – “
when someone opens up today on a sensitive subject, we can no longer turn around rejecting what he says
” -, the legend of Arsenal wonders: “
I don't know how people would react if a football player spoke like that at the end of a match, explaining that he was not mentally well.
In my time, it was much harder, totally taboo (…) If a player said at the end of a match:
''This penalty, I didn't feel it, I was scared''
, I don't know not if people would be willing to hear it.
»
And Henry takes the famous penalty shootout against Italy at the 1998
World Cup as an example.
3 on tabs), Aimé Jacquet arrived next to me and asked me: “
Are you shooting?
'' I replied ''
yeah
'', as if I was at the Clamart tournament with Les Ulis (his home town located in Essonne and his first club).
He looked at me: “
Yeah or yes?
!
''-
Uh, yes!
'' And there, the more the penalties came towards me, the less confident I was (laughs)
.
Then it happened. “
Okay, it's mine.
“On my first two steps, I was like, '
Oh the fuck, what are you doing here?
“But after the second step, it was over, I was in warrior mode.
And I put it.
However, that didn't stop me from being crossed by fear at one point.
I would never talk about that feeling at the end of the game.
If I had been asked the question, I would have said: ''
The coach saw my determination in the eyes
.'' However, the first two steps... Today, I was interested in asking, for example, Kylian Mbappé if he felt a moment of fear before the match..."