French legend Thierry Henry has revisited memories from his brief spell at Juventus in 1999, speaking about the iron mentality that characterized the Bianconeri squad at the time.
The former striker, now a pundit for the American broadcaster CBS Sports, shared a meaningful episode from his early days in Turin.
“I arrived and there were players of the caliber of Alessandro Del Piero, Filippo Inzaghi, Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps and Angelo Di Livio. On the training ground they were running and, before one drill, they told me: ‘Stay aside, this isn’t for you yet.’ I tried to stay because I had just arrived, but I could only watch,” Henry recalled.
He also described the intensity of the training sessions, highlighting the extreme dedication of midfielder Alessio Tacchinardi.
“Tacchinardi was running back and forth from one goalpost to the other until he almost fainted. I went back to the dressing room and thought: ‘I’m not ready for this.’ People used to say that team ran a lot. They were ready to push themselves beyond their limits; they were ready to die on the pitch for the team,” he said.
Henry stayed only a few months at Juventus before moving to Arsenal, where he would go on to become one of the greatest strikers in the history of English football.
