20,000 Barcelona fans turn up for Henry presentation

By DPA

Madrid : Around 20,000 Barcelona fans turned up to see Thierry Henry wear the famous red and yellow shirt for the first time.


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Henry delighted the quarter-full Camp Nou on Monday night by juggling a few balls then kicking them towards the fans. This came after a packed press conference at which the Frenchman explained how happy he was to have joined Barca, as Barcelona is known, after leaving Arsenal.

"I am really pleased to be here," said Henry. "It has been a long chase but I'm finally here and happy to be here, and I can't wait to go out there and show what I can do to the fans.

"Hopefully I can be a great asset for the team. I haven't set any targets or objectives. It has to be a club target," he added.

"Barcelona is always a club that wants to win everything. I am going to try hard to help as much as I can. It has to be a team effort right from the start."

Henry said that he hopes to finally win a UEFA Champions League winners' medal at Barcelona after missing out on one at Arsenal.

"It is a dream for everyone to win the Champions League and I'm sure it will be the dream of Barcelona to win it again next season.

"It is the only thing I didn't win (at Arsenal) but the most important thing is that Barcelona is successful and they win silverware."

Henry also hopes the Arsenal fans can understand his decision to leave North London.

"Hopefully they will appreciate what I have done there and I have certainly enjoyed my time over there.

"I always said that if I ever left Arsenal it would have been to play for Barcelona. I am here right now, no disrespect to anybody but that was my choice.

"The way Barcelona play football, the fans, just being here and seeing what I'm noticing right now, it's outstanding. It was always in my mind if I was going to leave it would be for Barcelona Football Club."

Henry made a special mention of Barca striker Samuel Eto'o, denying there would be any rivalry between them.

"The relationship I have with Samuel is from a long time ago," noted Henry. "I know a lot of players in the team but on top of that Samuel and I have been really close in the past two years.

"He came to see me at my house when I got injured a few months ago and I came to see him when he had an operation (in October)."

Earlier, Henry passed extensive medical tests at Camp Nou.

Barca head doctor Ricard Pruna reported that Henry's condition was generally good, but that he needed to do specific work to rebuild the muscles in his left thigh, injured in March.

Henry will now be on holiday until July 21, when the new-look Barca squad reports for pre-season training.

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