Cesc Fabregas claims one former Arsenal player had the same aura on the pitch as Lionel Messi

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Former Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas played with some of the greatest players ever back in the day, including Lionel Messi.

The Spaniard joined the Gunners from Barcelona’s prestigious La Masia academy when he was just a teenager. He became Arsenal’s youngest-ever player and goalscorer at the time and was a real fan favourite.

Fabregas had a phenomenal career at the top level, but that wouldn’t have been possible without some of his exceptional teammates.

Messi was definitely one of them, and Fabregas has now revealed that there was another player who had the same aura as the Argentine.

Cesc Fabregas shares one major similarity between Arsenal legend Thierry Henry and Lionel Messi

Thierry Henry is Arsenal’s greatest player of all time.

The legendary Frenchman scored more goals than anyone else in the club’s history, and he played a huge part in Arsenal’s success in the early 2000s.

Fabregas was lucky enough to play with Henry in his prime, and the Spaniard also got the opportunity to call Messi his teammate after he joined Barcelona.

There’s no better judge than Fabregas to talk about the two icons of the game, and he has now revealed the one similarity between Henry and Messi.

The former Arsenal midfielder has claimed that there were games he knew he would win even before he stepped onto the pitch – that was because he had Henry or Messi as his teammate.

Fabregas said on the Rest is Football podcast: “Thierry, I think together with Lionel Messi, they are the two players that I felt much stronger with on the football pitch.

“It’s like saying ‘ok, this could not be my day, the team could not play well’, but you know you will always have Thierry Henry there to save the day.

“There were games in the later part of my career, the last eight to 10 years, I didn’t feel that any game was easy. Maybe when I was playing with Leo, yeah you can feel the confidence that he will make something special, but also with Thierry.

“We were playing Everton at home. When we were in the tunnel at Highbury, stepping onto the pitch, it’s difficult to explain because I don’t want it to sound weird or arrogant or anything, but I knew we were going to win.

“That was the power of me seeing Thierry there. I only felt that with him and Leo.”

Listen to ‘The Rest Is Football‘ wherever you get your podcasts.

READ MORE: Gerard Pique reveals why his and Lionel Messi’s move to Arsenal failed under Arsene Wenger

What Lionel Messi once said about Thierry Henry shows how great he was

Messi is arguably the best footballer the world has ever seen, but before he became the phenomenon he is today, there was Henry.

The Arsenal legend was unstoppable on his day back then, and when he left the Gunners to join Barcelona, everyone felt the Catalans had snapped up a huge player.

Even Messi, who was a youngster in the Barca dressing room back then, was in awe of Henry, so much so that he was even afraid to look at him.

He said, as quoted by The Mail: “The first day he entered the dressing room, I did not dare to look him in the face. I knew everything he had done in England. I had an image of him made and suddenly we were on the same team. 

“What I feel for Titi may be a form of admiration. I loved Henry. The ease of finishing an action, how he takes the road to the goal and ends the play. He gives the impression that it is natural. His career, his dribbling, the last gesture. It is fluid, proportionate.”