Although he didn’t spend much time at Camp Nou and had already lived his best years as a player for Arsenal, Thierry Henry is a very respected voice within the FC Barcelona environment. Additionally, as a coach, he knows what it’s like to work with young players after coaching the France U-21 team. For this reason, he wanted to issue a warning about the risks of comparing Lamine Yamal.

The pressure on Lamine Yamal to be the new Messi

Since his debut at Barcelona at the age of 15, he has been avoiding comparisons with Leo Messi and Lamine Yamal. Especially because, at his age, Leo Messi was far from showing the current level of Lamine Yamal, who has become an essential player for Hansi Flick at Barcelona… in addition to being part of the Euro 2024 victory with Spain.

However, there have been many footballers who have been dubbed as the new Leo Messi at Barcelona, and in the end, they have not lived up to expectations. The most recent case is that of Ansu Fati. But Thierry Henry wanted to travel back in time and remember the case of Bojan Krkic, with whom he shared a locker room during his time at Barcelona.

What did Henry say about Bojan?

“I’ve already lived through this situation before. Not me, but I’ve seen someone come onto the scene like this: Bojan Krkic. I don’t know if you remember him, but I invite you to watch his documentary because I don’t have time to explain everything. I invite you to go watch it and see what can happen to you when you’re young and you don’t know how to handle everything happening to you so quickly,” confessed Thierry Henry.

It’s important to remember that Bojan made his debut in 2007 with Barcelona when he was only 17 years old, after becoming the top scorer of the academy. However, the intense pressure of being at a team like Barcelona and the constant comparisons to Messi hindered his breakthrough. “They forget that he was just a kid who went from being unknown to everyone thinking he’s great,” concluded Thierry Henry.