There were several clues that this was not an ordinary football interview. Being sat opposite Thierry Henry separated by a scented candle was one, but perhaps the most obvious was the instruction not to mention football. Henry flew into London after Barcelona’s Champions League victory away to VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday to promote a collection of clothes by Tommy Hilfiger, profits from which are going to One 4 All, the antiracist foundation backed by the France player. Fortunately, Henry likes talking about football, which was as well as attempts to weave soccer into questions about fashion became tiring.

Last weekend, Henry scored his first hat-trick for Barcelona (away to Levante) since leaving Arsenal. A hat-trick is a sort of football fashion statement isn’t it, a way of telling a new set of supporters that you have arrived? “They wanted me to score,” he said, “but if you give 100 per cent, they recognise that, but scoring three goals, as you say, it is a statement.”

The Thierry Henry Capsule Collection was influenced by the player’s “grace and charisma”. Presumably Hilfiger could have chosen any number of footballers, but Henry is a star, a fact borne out by the jostling fans who stood outside the Hilfiger store in Regent Street and cheered as he stood in the window and grinned at them.

“It’s always the thing I am fighting against; stars, heroes, icons,” he said. “What is a star? At night I see them in the skies, but if you kick a leather ball, I don’t know if you can call that a star. I think if you go into the dictionary they won’t put ‘football player who plays for Arsenal’ or whatever. Players never call themselves stars; people give you names.”

There is a theory that Henry became too big a star for Arsenal and his transfer liberated the team’s youngsters, who were inhibited by his presence. Henry did not like it, though, when reference was made to “Thierry Henry’s Arsenal” rather than plain Arsenal. “That was annoying because it’s Arsenal playing and people get sucked into it,” he said. “Football has always been a team effort and always will be a team effort.”

So, is he enjoying playing for Barcelona and not Thierry Henry’s Barcelona? “It’s the same thing – now it’s Lionel Messi’s Barcelona,” he said. “Then it’s going to be another player. They always find a player because there is always a player who shines more at times. You have to live with it. I don’t get sucked into it. We don’t get sucked into it. You never hear a player saying he is more important.”

Arsenal were not expected to thrive without Henry, but they lead the Barclays Premier League having delivered performances of flair and steel. Has Henry noticed anything different? “The only thing is the last two seasons we didn’t start well,” he said. “This season they did start well. I know and the boss [Arsène Wenger] knew what the players were capable of doing. Sometimes it is not always easy. Two years ago, Chelsea had an amazing year, Manchester United last year had an amazing year. There is quality [at Arsenal], you don’t reach a Champions League final just like this, so it was always going to come. To find out [how] you have to go inside the head of Arsène Wenger and that’s more difficult; he pulls the strings.”

Henry continues to watch Premier League matches and retains a love for English football. “There’s the type of game you can only see in England; 4-1 [the scoreline in Aston Villa’s favour away to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday] with 20 minutes to go and then it’s 4-4. It was 7-4 in Portsmouth against Reading. In two games you have almost 20 goals. It’s ridiculous – not in a bad way but ridiculous, like wow, but that’s the Premiership. If you go to get a bottle of water from your fridge you can miss two goals.”

Does the forward miss those roller-coaster games? “Not just that, everything,” he said. “Everything about the Premiership, everything about England. The stadiums always full, the whole thing on Saturday, everyone raving about going to the game, going to the stadium, waking up early, walking to the stadium, going to the pub afterwards, talking about the game for the whole weekend.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering, his favourite colour is blue. “But I don’t wear it,” he said, “that’s weird, huh? It’s difficult to match blue.”

Style own goals

Thierry Henry’s Capsule Collection draws on an understated palette of tonal greys, blacks and browns. Five rather less sophisticated football fashion statements:

— David Beckham not only said he was in touch with his feminine side, he proved it. The Los Angeles Galaxy midfield player and former England captain has been photographed in a sarong and wearing nail varnish.

— The footballer fashion error that smacked most of hubris came in 1996 when the Liverpool team turned up to Wembley in white suits and presumably spent the match worrying about their dry-cleaning bill.

— The match-winner in that FA Cup Final was Eric Cantona, who swapped his turned-up football shirt collar for an Elizabethan ruff when he appeared as Monsieur de Foix in the 1998 film Elizabeth.

— A double whammy of nasty dress sense came in 1987 when Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle appeared on Top of the Pops to sing Diamond Lights with their jacket sleeves rolled up.

— David Seaman said he could not bear to wear pink on Dancing On Ice, but manfully managed to pull on tight red trousers and yellow shirts to win viewers’ votes.

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