Thierry Henry's brilliant answer when asked about missing out on Ballon d'Or in 2003 | OneFootball

Highlights

Back in 2003, Pavel Nedved won the Ballon d'Or after a pretty fantastic season for Juventus in which his side won the Serie A, finished runners-up in the Champions League, and he scored 14 goals and chalked up 17 assists. It was a strong season, but a large population of football fans believe he didn't actually deserve the award, and it should have gone to Thierry Henry instead.

It's hard to argue too, with the Frenchman being in scintillating form in 2003 for Arsenal and really stamping his claim as one of the very best footballers in the world. The former forward was breathtaking as he scored 32 goals and created 28 assists for the Gunners and many believe he was robbed of the award.

What hurts most is the fact that Henry never went on to win a single Ballon d'Or making him one of the greatest players of all time to never do so, but we've actually heard him speak very little about the matter and share his thoughts on whether he was robbed or not. He's remained silent on the situation for the most part. Until now that is, as Micah Richards decided to bring it up during the Champions League coverage on CBS Sports.

The pair have been covering Champions League games with CBS Sports

Over the last couple of years, Richards, Henry and Jamie Carragher have been working with CBS Sports to provide coverage for the Champions League, and it's been a resounding success. The trio work wonderfully with presenter Kate Abdo and they regularly have fans in stitches with some of the things they come up with on the show.

Their chemistry together is undeniable, and they've become huge fan favourites due to the hilarious nature of their antics on the screen and their relationships with one another. During the broadcast tonight, though, the topic of the Ballon d'Or race came up, with many believing Erling Haaland is going to be robbed of the award by Lionel Messi.

This prompted Richards to ask Henry about his own experience losing out when so many thought he deserved to win, and he clearly wanted to know whether the former Arsenal man also believed that he had been robbed of the win and deserved it more than Nedved did. The Frenchman's response was quite brilliant.

Henry gave an honest, but classy answer

It would have been easy for Henry to be bitter about losing the Ballon d'Or to Nedved all those years ago. After all, he never had the chance to win it again, but instead, the former forward's response to Richard's comments about the loss were filled with class and showed why he's a true gentleman.

Speaking about the decision to award Nedved with the Ballon d'Or instead of himself, Henry said: "You can't debate opinions. When journalists are involved in votes, they vote whatever they want.

"However you want to look at it, they vote whatever they want and when you look at the votes in the history of it, not only my year, every year, you look at the first three, and you're like, really? It is what it is. You can't debate opinions."

With or without the Ballon d'Or victory, Henry has undeniably gone down as one of the greatest forwards in the history of football. There have been few players ever that dominated the sport in the manner in which he did, so it's safe to say the loss didn't hurt his career at all. Check out the table below to look at Henry's stats in 2003 compared to Nedved's.