10 great players who never won the Ballon d’Or

#9 Thierry Henry

Henry famously scored on his return to Arsenal in 2012

Perhaps the Premier League’s greatest import, Henry lit up English football after his move from Juventus in 1999. An awful lot of credit must go to Arsene Wenger for this one. Henry was an unknown quantity when he joined the Gunners, and was naturally a left winger. Wenger though saw his potential as a striker, and made Henry into the player that we all know and loved in the Premier League.

His time at Arsenal saw him score 226 goals in just 369 games, including netting 30 goals in five consecutive seasons, and was notably part of the Invincibles in the 2003/04 season. He left the club in 2007 to join Barcelona, in search of the one trophy that evaded him, the Champions League. He won that in 2009, and would go on to play out the final days of his career with New York Red Bulls. Henry did come close to claiming the Ballon d’Or in 2003, finishing second behind Pavel Nedved.