Thierry Henry Was Genuinely Starstruck After Meeting Paolo Maldini While on Punditry Duty

• Thierry Henry had a brilliant exchange with legendary former Milan defender Paolo Maldini
• The two met on punditry duty for the Champions League semi-final between the city teams
• Maldini left several pundits gushing over his presence prior to the historic Milan UCL clash

Who would have ever thought we would see Thierry Henry turn into a fanboy, albeit for a few seconds?

This was precisely what happened on Wednesday, May 10, when the former Arsenal man met Paolo Maldini ahead of the Milan derby in the Champions League semi-final.

Maldini, an AC Milan icon, joined CBS Sports Golazo ahead of the clash and while chatting to Henry, it was clear the Frenchman was a little star-struck.

Henry was in the presence of fellow former footballers turned pundits, Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, who were like kids in a candy store in the presence of the Italian legend.

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Henry admits he feared Maldini

During the interaction with the AC Milan legend, Henry recalled his most memorable experience with Maldini in his prime - the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

At the time, France came up against Italy in the quarter-finals and Les Blues needed to go through to the last four via penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.

“What I want to tell you is very important and never had the opportunity to say it. We played against each other in ’98, I’m not talking about the game as that’s not important as I have too much respect for you for that,” Henry said, as quoted by TalkSport.

“When I realised I was coming on and playing on the right, I suddenly got scared because of what you represented. The defender that you were, for me, you epitomised what defending was about."

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Just how good was Maldini?

In his prime, there were not many defenders that could stand in the same podium as Maldini. The current technical director for Milan epitomised grace, with his tackles and overall defending looking more like art.

In terms of career stats, the Italian made a total of 901 appearances, scoring 33 goals and getting 43 assists, according to Transfermkt.

These are impressive statistics for a defender. Notably, he also averaged just one red card every 300 games.

Tomori: AC Milan was nervous

In other news, Sports Brief reported on Fikayo Tomori’s admission after AC Milan were beaten by Inter Milan in the semi-final first leg on May 10.

The two teams share the iconic Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in San Siro, making things even more challenging going into the second leg next week.

Their meeting was the first in the knockout stage of the Champions League since the infamous 2005 'Derby of Shame', which AC Milan won.