Six-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has admitted that he was starstruck upon Thierry Henry's arrival at Camp Nou.

The Frenchman joined Barcelona following a highly successful career at Arsenal, in which he amassed 226 goals between 1999 and 2007.

Messi was only 20 when Henry made the switch to Catalonia, and the Argentine told L'Equipe: "The first day he entered the dressing room, I did not dare to look him in the face.

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

Henry chalked up 49 goals in 121 appearances for La Blaugrana between 2007 and 2010.