Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has named one Arsenal icon as the quickest he ever had to manage when he was a referee.
The 50-year-old official had seen it all in his time in the game, taking charge of over 600 games across many different competitions and nations around the globe.
With Mark Clattenburg refereeing plenty of Premier League games in his professional career, there have been plenty that he has noticed.
Among those are the players who are difficult to keep up with, due to their immense pace and ability to create space.
Out of the many talented players he has seen, the former referee picked out one Arsenal icon as the quickest and toughest to keep up with when speaking exclusively with Arsenal Insider.
Mark Clattenburg reveals Arsenal icon Thierry Henry as the fastest Premier League player he has refereed
It’s fair to say that Thierry Henry has been lavished with praise from plenty of former professionals throughout his career.
Rio Ferdinand recently admitted Thierry Henry caused him sleepless nights, such was the threat that he possessed.
The Arsenal legend wasn’t just a problem for the opposition, but his pace meant he was the quickest to referee, making it tough for officials to keep up with play.
Speaking exclusively to Arsenal Insider, former Premier League official Mark Clattenburg claims that Henry was the quickest he ever faced.
“Who was the quickest Premier League player I’ve ever refereed? Without a doubt, it was Thierry Henry.
“He was rapid, playing for Arsenal. Outside of the Premier League, certainly in the Champions League, it would’ve been Cristiano Ronaldo.
“He was quick with the ball and certainly quick without the ball.
“But it’s interesting now to see the modern players, how quick they are and I think if we look at people like Micky van de Ven who has probably the quickest recorded time in the Premier League, how modern players are prepared now and how strong they are and athletes more now than certainly my time in 2017.”
While it’d be interesting to see how Henry matches up compared to the modern players, the talk surrounding his pace extends beyond Clattenburg, too.
How fast was Thierry Henry during his playing days?
Thierry Henry was an absolute nightmare for defenders, with a mixture of pace, technical quality and composure that made for a perfect forward.
Martin Keown likened Henry to an “Olympic sprinter” and he wasn’t far off when it comes to the recorded speeds of the star.
The fastest recorded time for the Frenchman came from a match in 1998, which clocked him at 39.2 kilometres per hour, or roughly 24.3 miles per hour.
While the Olympic sprinter point has been made before, Henry has already looked to dismiss any such claim.
The Frenchman took part in a Paris 2024 Olympics documentary called La Vie Sportive in 2023, discussing the event.
On there, he spoke about sprinting as a sport, but shrugged off comparisons with himself, stating: “Not to make a joke, but you have to stay in your lane.
“I could play football, it’s different, you know. I had zero technique, I was running out of sheer power.
“Because those guys train, the technique, the way they come out of the starting block, the way they run, they count their steps. I never thought about it.
“People always used to ask me, how quick would you have been on a one on 100 metre dash? And I was like, I don’t know.
“The most you’re running in the game is 40 metres, 50 if you go on the counter. I have too much respect for those guys.”
While that may not have led to an Athletics career for the forward, it certainly did help him make a name for himself in football.
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