Arsene: Henry should have won
Arsene Wenger insists Thierry Henry should have won the World Football of the Year.
Arsene Wenger insists that Thierry Henry should have been crowned World Football of the Year, but says he can be a special player by winning the gong next year.Henry was runner-up behind Ronaldinho in Fifa's award, after also finishing second last year to Zinedine Zidane.
Wenger says that Henry should have won the award as Ronaldinho did not win anything with Barcelona last season.
"I think Thierry should have won the award, although I'm not a great fan of this circus as it's a bit against the soul and the spirit of the game to reward individual players," said Wenger.
"This is a team sport and, as a manager, you are interested in what the team is achieving. But if you look at what Thierry has done, he deserved to win it.
"If he wins it next year though, his overall achievement will make him the player of his generation as he is in there every year.
"He was in a team that won and was remarkably consistent for 49 games. You cannot say that for many other players.
"In Europe last season, the only one who could compete with that was Deco as he won the Portuguese championship and the Champions League. As for all the rest, I don't know."
Andrei Shevchenko was third behind Henry in the poll, but landed the Ballon d'Or ahead of the Frenchman who was only fourth.
"Nobody would have argued with Thierry's performances for Arsenal. I just feel that he has paid for the non-performing period of the French national team," added Wenger.
"For example, Shevchenko didn't win more, didn't score more goals and contributed less in assists, but Ukraine didn't go to the Euro 2004 finals so he couldn't fail there."
