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Lionel Messi says he was so star struck he couldn't look Thierry Henry in the eye when he first arrived at Barcelona.

Henry left Arsenal in 2007 after winning two Premier League trophies in north London.

He was widely considered to be one of the best players in the world, while the future greatest footballer of all time, Messi, was merely a youngster still learning his trade.

Messi would have met a plethora of superstars from the first day he arrived at the Nou Camp as a 12-year-old, given the quality the club has always boasted.

(Image: Getty Images)

But it was the sight of Henry that caused his jaw to drop.

"The first day he entered the dressing room, I did not dare to look him in the face," Messi told L'Equipe.

"I knew everything he had done in England. I had an image of him made and suddenly we were on the same team.

(Image: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

"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."