Topics: Thierry Henry, Arsenal
Thierry Henry played with some incredible footballers in his illustrious career but never with the player he sees as the 'best passer' in the history of the sport.
The Arsenal legend was a fine passer in his own right and played with the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Cesc Fabregas and Edgar Davids, not to mention international team-mates including Zinedine Zidane and current France manager Didier Deschamps.
There are many others who'd be in the conversation if Henry were to identify the best passer he'd ever played with, but he called out an unexpected name when he identified football's best passer overall.
Henry was in the studio for Sky Sports' Monday Night Football as AFC Bournemouth beat Fulham in the Premier League and was effusive in his praise for a fellow European champion.
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"Michael Laudrup used to always move the ball before a pass," said Henry.
Widely regarded as Denmark's greatest footballer ever, Laudrup played more than 100 times for his country and is admired by many of the elite footballers who became household names in his wake.
After playing for KB and Brondby, a young Laudrup embarked on a legendary career that took him to some of the biggest clubs Italy, Spain, Japan and the Netherlands.
Laudrup won league titles with Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Ajax, as well as a famous European Cup with Johan Cruyff's Barcelona.
He was celebrated as one of the best players in all of those teams. His passing ability and peerless creativity in the final third made him one of the world's best footballers throughout his career.
"People who know me will tell you that I always talk about Michael Laudrup. I don't know why people forgot about him," added Henry.
Laudrup isn't the first name who springs to mind for fans in 2025 but he was right up there with the very best.
He was the spiritual leader of Denmark's storied but flawed national team of the 1980s on the pitch but was in what proved to be a temporary international retirement when they won the European Championship against the odds in 1992.
Laudrup's club career delivered the trophies he deserved along with a truckload of individual accolades.
He was crowned Scandinavia's best player of all time in 2015, long after being named the best foreign player in Spain in the last 25 years of the last century.
Pele and World Soccer both named Laudrup among the best 100 players of the 20th Century.
