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Toni Kroos reckons Arsenal had a player who was just as good as Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho celebrates during a Barcelona game
Photo by Luis Bagu/Getty Images

However, the crème de la crème of Arsenal legends has to be Thierry Henry.

Henry is one of the best to ever play the beautiful game, and speaking on his podcast, Toni Kroos has shared a serious bit of praise for the Arsenal legend.

Kroos was ranking his best left-wingers of all-time, and he put Henry joint-second on that list alongside Ronaldinho.

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Toni Kroos hails Thierry Henry

Kroos spoke about Henry in the context of the greatest left wingers ever.

The German actually forgot to put Henry on his original list, but he’s now set the record straight, apologising for not including him and reinstating him as the second-best ever, just behind Cristiano Ronaldo.

“At Arsenal, he often started from the left, and that was brilliant. But he would 1,000 per cent be a striker for me. I’m not going to leave him out of my top five here, because his absolute best years were at Arsenal under Arsène Wenger,” Kroos said.

“Anyway, Henry played more from the left, but he 1,000 per cent belongs in that top five.” Kroos said.

“I’d even say he deserves a special trophy. I don’t know, one with an apology written on it.”

“I would actually put him joint-second with Ronaldinho.”

“Yes, somewhere around there. So we owe Titi an apology.”

“Right, I’ve got him in now, but I didn’t want to simply leave him out of the strikers altogether. Thierry Henry was absolutely world-class. I can still remember that burgundy shirt with the gold O2 sponsor on the front.”

There’s no question that Henry is one of the greats, but the question here is whether or not he should be classified as a left winger or a striker.

Henry did like to drift in off the left, but he was very much a centre-forward for Arsenal rather than a wide player as the likes of Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg played out wide.

Of course, that was a different time in football where 4-4-2 was the dominant formation, and once Pep Guardiola got his hands on Henry, he did move him to the left in a 4-3-3.

In the modern game, Henry probably would play more off the left, but at the peak of his powers, as Kroos says, he was more of a striker.

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