Thierry Henry has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II and reveals an interesting story about forgetting the name of an Arsenal teammate when the team met the monarch because he was nervous.
Queen Elizabeth has just died at the ripe age of 96 and the tributes have continued to pour in from all over the world.
Arsenal is one of the few clubs that had the chance to meet the monarch in person.
Henry was tasked with introducing his teammates to her at the meeting at Buckingham Palace in 2007.
Henry, who was one of the best players in the world at the time, reveals he was so nervous he forgot a teammate’s name.
He said, as quoted by The Daily Mail:
‘I had the opportunity to meet the Queen and I was nervous, as hell.
‘I remember thinking “I am about to play a game or something”.
‘When you are at Buckingham Palace and you are meeting the Queen -I looked at Julio Baptista and forgot his name! I was like “who is that?”.
‘It was my duty to introduce everybody (as Arsenal captain). When you are nervous you want to go back into your own language? I don’t think that if I had spoken French it would have worked.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
The queen was one of the most important people in the world and only a few individuals had the honour of ever meeting her.
So it is understandable that Henry was in shock because for some, meeting her could make just about anyone forget his teammate’s name.
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Actually it would have worked TH14.i listened/watched a couple of speeches in French from the Queen.i have to admit that I was impressed,her pronunciation was spot on and she barely had an accent.
Oh the sheer embarrassment, esp with HM Queen!
Id have wanted the ground to open up and swallow me had I been in Henrys position.
Funny now and quite charming but what a real horror moment for poor transfixed Thierry.
Haha! apparently Liz Truss didn’t do any better when presented to the Queen!!
Imagine how Julio Baptista must’ve felt. Poor guy.
He’s thinking “How important am I to this team when the captain doesn’t even know my name? And now, nor does the queen! :(“.
I had not thought of that.
Actually, I had also forgotten Julio Baptista until now – built like a tank though!!