Micah Richards says his first ‘hero’ in football was an Arsenal player but it wasn’t Thierry Henry

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It is no secret that Micah Richards was an Arsenal fan growing up.

The former Manchester City man, who is now one of the most popular pundits in England, adored the Gunners as a kid, and he still has a soft spot for the club.

Richards has openly admitted his admiration for Thierry Henry in the past. He loves the legendary Frenchman like the rest of us.

But the pundit’s first footballing hero was another Arsenal legend – Patrick Vieira.

Micah Richards explains why Patrick Vieira was his ‘hero’ before Thierry Henry

Henry is Arsenal’s greatest-ever player, but there have been other big names who have represented the club as well.

The likes of Tony Adams, Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp and Sol Campbell are all icons in the red half of North London and are adored by the fans even to this day.

Vieira also belongs to the same category. The Frenchman was one of the best midfielders to ever grace the Premier League. There’s still nobody like him.

Henry got most of the plaudits and rightly so, but Vieira was the real leader of the Arsenal Invincibles team and is among the biggest legends of the club.

On the Rest is Football podcast, while celebrating the greatness of Thierry Henry, Gary Lineker asked Micah Richards if the legendary Frenchman was his hero.

He first replied: “Yeah, he was my hero.”

However, just a few moments later, Richards claimed: “But actually, my hero was Vieira at first, because I thought I was a Vieira-type player in midfield.”

Fill in the blank: The one Arsenal legend I would love to see play in Mikel Arteta’s current team is _______________

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There will never be another Patrick Vieira

In his prime, Vieira was in a league of his own.

The World Cup winner could do it all in the middle of the park, and his leadership skills are up there with the very best we’ve seen in the game.

Henry played with Vieira for club and country, and he feels we will never see another player like him ever again.

“You can not have another Vieira, it’s as simple as that,” Henry said in 2017, as per The Standard.

“I don’t remember ever playing with or seeing a man that could play alone in midfield, getting the ball back, giving you an assist and a goal. Going through the opposition like they just were not there.”