Zinedine Zidane is inarguably one of the greatest players in football history. A winner of both the 1998 Ballon d’Or and World Cup, he secured 13 major titles throughout his career with Bordeaux, Juventus, and Real Madrid, recording 125 goals and 140 assists over 689 appearances.
Wearing the number 10 shirt with a trademark finesse, Zidane redefined what it meant to play in that role, becoming a blueprint for generations to follow. He had a way of weaving past defenders as if in a trance, leaving them spellbound. Watching him was like entering a world of lucid dreaming, but for his opponents, it felt like slipping into an unending nightmare.
The Frenchman's technique and flair were two attributes he could rightly lay claim to perfecting. For that reason, he is renowned for being one of the most technically-gifted footballers of all-time. But in his opinion, there's a Premier League legend that deserves to stand at the top of that ranking.
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Titi beat the likes of Ronaldinho to top spot in Zidane's thinking
Thierry Henry Arsenal
Having played the majority of his football in sunny Spain, Zidane had probably grown tired of the fanciful footballer by the time he hung up his boots in 2006.
On the Iberian Peninsula, there is no shortage of players that can do magical things with the ball at their feet, and while Ronaldinho crossed his mind, the Frenchman picked Arsenal and Barcelona icon Thierry Henry as the most gifted footballer he's ever seen. He said, as per talkSPORT:
“Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game.”
Is Thierry Henry The Greatest Premier League Player Ever?
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone better, especially on a technical level
Henry scored 24 or more goals in five successive Premier League seasons in the early-2000s, forming the better-half of his fear-inducing strike partnership with Dennis Bergkamp. Between 1999 and 2007, he won the English top-flight twice (including once invincible), the Player of the Season award twice, and scored 175 goals and produced 74 assists in 258 appearances.
Is he the best player in Premier League history? Wayne Rooney, Mohamed Salah, and Alan Shearer are among those that might have something to say about that, but there's no denying his talent has been excruciatingly difficult to replace since he departed for the Costa Brava coastline with Barcelona in 2007.
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For nearly a decade, the Frenchman was England and Arsenal's poster boy. A body feint here, a beautiful bit of skill to loop the ball over a defender's head before vollying into the back of the net there - Henry could do it all when given even just a whiff of a chance. It only takes one glance at a highlight reel to see what Zidane saw in him.
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt (correct as of 18/05/2025)