I'm not sure if I posted this in the correct area but here goes!
As you probably all know, Henry has recently made his return for Arsenal and scored on his debut against Leeds. One of my best friends is an Arsenal supporter and after the game, after I had praised Henry as a class act and one of the true football gentlemen, my friend proceeded to say that I should never try to compare Del Piero to Henry. In his opinion Henry is way above Del Piero. I replied, rather hastily, that a look at the record books would put him in his place and that Henry would come no where close to Del Piero. I got no immediate response and we left it at that for a while.
A few days ago however, I received a post on my facebook wall with both their wiki profiles. These statistics were quite amazing and disappointing at the same time...
Career total goals scored:
Club level: Del Piero 286 Henry 321;
National level: Del Piero 27, Henry 51.
Now I know that you cannot measure success by just goals scored however when thinking about it, Henry has won almost everything Del Piero has won and more. That is:
Champions League
InterContinental Cup
Premier League (Serie A) - Del Piero has won many more here but does it mean that he was playing with a better team or that he was better?
FA Cup (Coppa Italia)
FIFA World Cup
UEFA Euro Tournament - Del Piero did not win this. Italy were winning the final in 2000 and he came on and missed 2 glorious chances to put it to bed. France (Henry) won instead.
I'm not sure what else to compare since they played in different leagues (except for the 16 games Henry played with Juve). When Arsenal played Juventus in 2006, they completely destroyed them. I'm not so sure Del Piero can be seen as better than Henry in the history books.
What do you guys think? Any thoughts?
As you probably all know, Henry has recently made his return for Arsenal and scored on his debut against Leeds. One of my best friends is an Arsenal supporter and after the game, after I had praised Henry as a class act and one of the true football gentlemen, my friend proceeded to say that I should never try to compare Del Piero to Henry. In his opinion Henry is way above Del Piero. I replied, rather hastily, that a look at the record books would put him in his place and that Henry would come no where close to Del Piero. I got no immediate response and we left it at that for a while.
A few days ago however, I received a post on my facebook wall with both their wiki profiles. These statistics were quite amazing and disappointing at the same time...
Career total goals scored:
Club level: Del Piero 286 Henry 321;
National level: Del Piero 27, Henry 51.
Now I know that you cannot measure success by just goals scored however when thinking about it, Henry has won almost everything Del Piero has won and more. That is:
Champions League
InterContinental Cup
Premier League (Serie A) - Del Piero has won many more here but does it mean that he was playing with a better team or that he was better?
FA Cup (Coppa Italia)
FIFA World Cup
UEFA Euro Tournament - Del Piero did not win this. Italy were winning the final in 2000 and he came on and missed 2 glorious chances to put it to bed. France (Henry) won instead.
I'm not sure what else to compare since they played in different leagues (except for the 16 games Henry played with Juve). When Arsenal played Juventus in 2006, they completely destroyed them. I'm not so sure Del Piero can be seen as better than Henry in the history books.
What do you guys think? Any thoughts?
