Thierry Henry to MLS. Eventually

By: Laurie | November 27th, 2007

Barcelona striker Thierry Henry may not be the scoring god he once was in his earlier Arsenal years, but the guy’s still got it. He recently broke Michel Platini’s record and became France’s all-time leading goal scorer with forty-two career goals. Then he notched a couple more for good measure to hold off France’s new young scoring studs awhile longer. (Karim Benzema, I’m lookin’ at you.)

The guy is thirty, though. Rumor has it that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger let him leave Arsenal because Arsene did a scientific study and discovered that Titi spent a fair percent less time running on the field than he had in his younger days.

But he was still good enough for a $32,000,000 transfer fee to Barcelona, where his contract runs till he’s thirty-four. And he’d still make hash out of any MLS defense.

Yes, MLS. Because that’s where our Titi would like to end his career.

(On an irrelevant note, one of my French soccer blogs recently got a hit from the US looking for “titis.” I don’t think it was someone looking for Thierry Henry info. I think it was an American twelve-year-old who can’t spell.)

But at any rate. Thierry Henry recently called Sports Illustrated’s Jonah Freedman and gave him an interview. Got that? Titi called Jonah. To me that means he’s serious about this MLS thing. At least eventually. One quote:

SI.com: You recently said you wouldn’t mind playing in America some day. Why?

Henry: I just love America, everything about it. The way you think, the sports — basketball, American football — there’s always some sports to watch, something to do. Since I was young, I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted live there. Some players want to finish their careers in Australia, the Middle East or back at the club where they started. For me, it’s America. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, I just know I’ve been wanting to do this since I was young.

You have no idea how much I love the idea of Thierry Henry playing in the US. But how would this work, exactly? And especially, how would someone who’s not known for suffering fools well, and who was once described by an anonymous France teammate as having a melon énorme, fit into MLS, world of the Salary Cap, which tends to limit the number of high-level players on a team?

I have no idea. But I can’t wait to pull up a chair and get some popcorn and watch it happen.
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