Thierry Henry is a pain in the neck…or the posterior. The Red Bull star is an instigator and a straight-shooter, unafraid to confront his friends, foes or fans. Perhaps that’s why he loves New York so much, and why the world’s brashest city is growing to embrace one of the planet’s biggest soccer stars.
“I’m a pain in the neck,’’ Henry admits to the Post. “I know that. But that’s the way I am on the field. Take me out of the pitch, I love to joke, dance, enjoy, whatever. But out there, I’m a pain in the neck.’’
After arriving last summer as MLS’ highest-profile addition since the L.A. Galaxy’s David Beckham _ and arguably the best player stateside since Pele and Franz Beckenbauer _ Henry is finally living up to the lofty standard expected of a $5.6 million-a-year Designated Player, with a league-high eight goals and four assists.
But despite leading France to a World Cup and Barcelona to a Champions League title, trading in his childhood projects for a $15 million SoHo penthouse, the 33-year-old Henry remains surprisingly-hungry and brutally-honest.
“He’s a great guy, down to earth, simple,’’ said Suns point guard Steve Nash, who also lives in SoHo. An avid soccer player and now minority owner of the MLS expansion Vancouver Whitecaps, Nash has been friends with Henry for seven years. “He’s important for the league, and for soccer in this country.’’
Henry’s 40,000-plus jerseys sold in just half of last season leading MLS, and he helped quadruple his team’s sponsorship revenue since last summer’s arrival. He’s the biggest reason the Red Bulls have been broadcast in 20 countries and nearly four dozen others on pay-per-view, Red Bulls’ outgoing managing director Erik Stover saying “We weren’t prepared for the magnitude of his superstardom worldwide.”
He’s a joker in the locker room, competitive in practice and ferocious in games _ to which he frequently arrives not on his gleaming Mercedes Benz, but via the PATH like any straphanger. After seeing his ex-wife Nicole Merry and daughter Téa get death threats following his controversial handball in France’s World Cup qualifier vs. Ireland, he’s enjoying his newfound anonymity like a warm blanket.
“That’s the part I enjoy the most, that I used to hate the most back in Europe. I’m happy to be here and I don’t want to go back,’’ said Henry, who sits courtside at the Garden unnoticed and dines out with model-esque girlfriend Andrea Rajačić undisturbed, just another star hiding in a city full of them.
“Even when he was playing in Europe, he always (said) I want to come play in New York, I love that city, I want to live here,’’ said best friend and Spurs star Tony Parker. “I’m just happy for him. Hopefully they can win a championship.’’
The Red Bulls have never won a championship, either the MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield or even U.S. Open Cup, which they begin play in at 8 p.m. tonight against visiting FCNY. But even after sitting at home last month watching his former team Barcelona win the Champions League crown, Henry insists he’s concentrating on captaining his new team to a title of its own.
“At Arsenal, I always said I’ll end up playing for a team in New York; I always wanted to come here and fight for this team,’’ said Henry, who helped set up Joel Lindpere’s goal in Sunday’s 1-1 tie at Chicago. “I’m so happy finally I can be fit.’’
While his play was expected, his passion wasn’t. Ex-FIFA World Player of the Year Lothar Matthaus was old and indifferent when he joined the MetroStars ten years before Henry; and while Beckham arrived in Los Angeles fixated on the red carpet, Henry is focused on his Red Bulls, evidenced on May 7 by his rough tackle from behind on his longtime friend and MLS’ other global superstar.
“I’m impressed that a guy with that background, that history of winning everything, is still all that hungry just to (practice), getting pissed losing a four-v-four,’’ said coach Hans Backe. “He’s so competitive.’’
That competitiveness boiled over April 16 when _ after being taunted by the Garden State Supporters while suffering from a painful Achilles injury _ he scored in a 3-0 rout of San Jose, running over to curse out the fans who’d mocked him. He’s had every one of his goals and assists since that catharsis, and the hardcore fans have embraced him for his New York moment.
“He always tries to push himself to please the fan. He’s a different player; he always has the focus of the eye of the fans. He’s always at the center,’’ said Rafa Marquez, who played two seasons alongside Henry at Barcelona and joined the Red Bulls at the same time.
“I’m all about heart. I was pissed with myself, because I wasn’t performing, because I couldn’t play hard. The fans can get over someone not having a good game; but what they want to see is someone playing hard. That’s why I was pissed,’’ Henry told the Post. “The thing I did with the fans, I don’t act: I don’t know how.
“I get into the face of people for no reason, but it gets me (fired-up). That’s my game. I grew up in the street. It’s tough; you have to have that face like I mean business. I’ll never change what brought me to this point, that passion, that desire, that anger that I have sometimes in me; that’s what made me arrive (where I am).’’
And where does that edge come from? Henry grew up south of Paris in Les Ulis, what they’d call les quartiers difficiles, a tough neighborhood of Arabian, Portuguese, Spanish and African immigrants, projects that either broke or hardened young men.
His mother Marylese prodded him in school, but his father Antoine pushed him on the field _ literally. His parents separated when he was 7, Antoine eventually moving back to his native Guadeloupe. But Henry visits on vacation, and his pickup games on the beach against his brother and Antoine show where his ferocity comes from.
“My girlfriend nearly came on the field to tell us to stop,’’ said Henry. “My father, he’s going to be 59, but when we play he’s my age. I get by him, he hacks me. I try to dribble past him, elbows in the face. He goes to score, I tackle him from the back, body-slam him in the sand. That’s how we play. That’s my dad; then you understand where it comes from.’’
That win-at-all-cost hunger never left him; just ask the still seething Irish fans, or Portland’s Adam Moffat, who he slapped in the head two weeks ago to draw a red card. And channeling his inner Lombardi, he says what he wants most in coming to America is to lead this team its first title.
“That’s the only thing,’’ said Henry. “You have to leave something. Is it going to happen? Who knows? But that’s what you want to do, you’ve got to do.’’
