Thierry Henry got his first taste of the Hero Indian Super League after witnessing Mumbai City FC’s 1-0 win against Atlético de Kolkata at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in Kolkata on Tuesday. The Arsenal and France legend, who lifted the 1998 FIFA World Cup as well the 2000 UEFA Euro trophy in national colours and was also a part of Arsenal’s invincible side in 2004, was given a rapturous reception in the City of Joy on Tuesday evening. Currently the assistant coach to Roberto Martinez with the Belgium’s national team, Henry spoke to indiansuperleague.com in an exclusive interview after the game. Here are the excerpts.

How was your overall experience in India and the game?

Well, so far so good, I left this morning and came to see the game. The game needed a goal, the goal came late but other than that it was a good atmosphere. I’ve heard the atmosphere is better in the other stadium, but you can’t get everything. Today was a good game of football, we saw two good goalkeepers and we saw Diego Forlan doing what he does best, putting the ball into the back of the net.

Speaking of Forlan, do you think players like him and Postiga and coaches like Jose Molina and Zico will help in lifting the game of Indian players?

Well for sure, it does help massively when you have players like these in the league. What will help more is if you can develop a lot of young players from India playing alongside these guys and learning about the game. That will be amazing.

You were one of the best strikers in the world in your playing days. Do you have any words for aspiring strikers in India?

Keep working hard, make sure you are the best player you can be, have the desire for goals but also have your signature move and your own way of playing.

As you have played and worked under Arsene Wenger, what have you learnt from him?

His calmness, his way of communicating with players, those were the two massive attributes that he had when I was playing under him.

Who is the toughest player you have played against and the best player you have played with?

Best player I have played with is Dennis Bergkamp and the toughest player I have played against depends on the day. When I wasn’t having a good day my dad could have defended me and when I was having a good day I was unstoppable so I would just say it depended on me. I’m not taking away credit from anyone, I played against some tough people but at the end of the game I would always say ‘I didn’t play well’. That was a way to keep me on my toes and making sure I could work on stuff to make sure they were not going to stop me again. But it depends, I had bad games against people you would say ‘really!’ and I had good games against people you would say ‘Oh, wow!’ It just depended on the day.