Arsenal and France football great Thierry Henry revealed the story behind his iconic over-the-knee socks to Kevin Prince-Boateng in an Instagram Live chat, as the Ghanaian footballer raved over the impact Henry has had on his game.

Henry was famous for playing with his socks pulled above his knees and gloves. The 33-year-old spoke about how that was one of the things that made the Frenchman stand out along with his football. Looking at him, Prince-Boateng said both he and his kids play with their socks pulled up.

“You have no idea what an inspiration you were for my family. My older brother, my younger brother, all my friends, you have no idea,” he told Henry on Instagram. “I never told you because we never had the chance to talk,” he added as the football legend looked touched.

“You brought something in football, maybe you don’t even know the socks over the knees and the Mercurial Vapor – I know Puma is going to hate me – but that’s history,” he added with a laugh. The Live with Mario Balotelli and Prince Boateng on Instagram was an interview for Puma football.

“With that style, you made the story of football. Maybe you don’t realise, my son is six-years-old, my other son who’s going to be 12, that’s what they do because they see it from me but you were the first,” Boateng added.

To that, Henry replied that the look was not his own but inspired by Sonny Anderson.

“I took it from someone – Sonny Anderson was the player when he arrived playing from Servette Geneva to Marseille, first game on TV, he had his socks over his knees. I was like ‘what is he doing?’ and then he came to Monaco - I was playing as a youngster in Monaco. So I kept the style and I could not change it. It’s still him, the first one I saw. When you play in the Premier League it goes places,” Henry recounted.

The Frenchman also shared a funny story about the reaction to the socks was not always positive, but it changed once he was among the goals.

“When I arrived in England and I had my socks over my knees I used to get hammered. They used to call me a ballet dancer ‘look at him, he thinks he’s going to dance’ and I used to have gloves with short sleeves so they were like... and I wasn’t scoring goals, I’d just arrived,” he recounted.

“They were like ‘what is this guy?’ and – like I said, I’m a bit stubborn, I was like ‘no, I always put my socks over my knees, that’s not going to change the way I play or what people think, so I kept it and I didn’t think about,” he continued.

Watch the exchange about the socks here:

Here’s the full video of the Live chat

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