Henry shares the glory with team-mates

THIERRY HENRY has paid a fulsome tribute to his Arsenal team-mates for their part in his award-winning season ahead of tonight’s Football Writers’ Association annual dinner.

Henry will not be attending the celebration of his achievement in being named as the first player to win the Player of the Year award for two consecutive years.

The 26-year-old striker is instead taking part in France’s FIFA-organised friendly in Paris against Brazil, so he has recorded a video message of thanks.

That was what compatriot Robert Pires did two years ago, when he was voted Player of the Year while still recovering from his serious knee injury.

Indeed, not only Henry and Pires, but two other Frenchmen, Eric Cantona and David Ginola, have won the prestigious FWA award in the past nine years.

Henry was a runaway winner of not only the journalists’ award this season, but also the same honour from his fellow players, organised by the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Then again, having just scored 30 Premiership goals, as well as five in the Champions League, three in the FA Cup, one in the Community Shield and three for France in a single season, nobody could seriously challenge him.

Henry, whose French side face England in their opening Euro 2004 group game, has nevertheless always been keen to stress the vital role played by his Arsenal team-mates in their historic unbeaten league run to the title.

“I’ve grabbed the headlines so many times but what has happened to me would not have been possible without my team-mates,” he declared in the wake of his side’s weekend victory against Leicester.

“The main difference this season is that we’ve played as a team. When we can play football, we do. When we can’t, we still try to win.”

Asked recently if he realised how successful he had become, he insisted: “I don’t realise and I don’t want to realise. You should ask the fans, I don’t like these kind of questions too much.

“I’m part of the team so obviously I’m helping when I’m on the pitch, like Patrick Vieira and everyone else. As a striker, you grab the headlines, but this team is something else.

“We have done something special this season. It’s a kind of a family here and you win titles because you play as a team.

“So many people have talked about how we play, but they forget about the way we fight for each other. You can’t just win titles with fancy football.”

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson will be in Paris to watch France in action ahead of their Euro 2004 meeting in Portugal.

He told the Football Association’s website, www.theFA.com: “I am very much looking forward to seeing France and Brazil in action tomorrow night.

“I am sure they will play a strong team against Brazil with Euro 2004 so close. Before we go to Portugal, they also play Andorra and Ukraine but against Brazil, you can see the real France.

“It should be a very interesting game and of course you always like to watch Brazil play.”