Another Ballon d’Or ceremony, another round of the same tired arguments on social media. The award’s a joke. The voting’s rigged. It’s lost all credibility.

And inevitably, amid the complaints from Arsenal fans about their players being historically and continually overlooked, someone will always bring up Thierry Henry in 2003.

Over two decades later, that particular grievance refuses to die.

The passage of time has done strange things to the narrative; it’s now treated as an indisputable fact that Henry was robbed in 2003. Meanwhile, the actual winner is increasingly spoken about as though he were some random chancer who had no right to be there.

Let’s get one thing straight. This isn’t going to be some contrarian exercise in pretending Henry wasn’t all that.

He’s Arsenal’s greatest-ever player, arguably the finest the Premier League has ever seen, and his standing among the world’s elite was underlined by seven successive top-10 finishes in the Ballon d’Or voting.

You could make an entirely convincing case that he’s the greatest player never to win a Ballon d’Or.

But consider Kylian Mbappe. France’s all-time leading goalscorer. The World Cup’s record scorer, the only player with two Golden Boots. Now fifth on the European Cup’s all-time scoring charts.

Already a legend of the game, unquestionably. Yet the stars have never quite aligned for him to put together an irresistible Ballon d’Or case in any given year. He’ll be at least 28 before he wins one.

We saw the same thing play out with Henry’s prime years.

The Gunners won the Premier League in 2002 and 2004, but Ronaldo’s extraordinary World Cup comeback dominated the former year. In the latter, Deco inspired Porto to Champions League glory, Andriy Shevchenko was at his devastating best for AC Milan and Ronaldinho was ascending into something otherworldly at Barcelona.

There was always somebody else with a compelling claim.

That leaves 2003, the year Henry came closest, as the supposed great injustice. But there’s a lot more to that particular Ballon d’Or race than the received wisdom would have you believe.

Yes, Henry produced one of the Premier League’s all-time great individual campaigns. Twenty-four goals and a staggering 20 assists, the vast majority from open play. A record that survived for over two decades.

Yet Arsene Wenger’s Gunners finished second, Ruud van Nistelrooy won the Golden Boot, and Manchester United took back the title.

Henry’s numbers were exceptional, but the defining games of Arsenal’s title defence offer key context. He drew a blank in a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford in December and couldn’t conjure up enough decisive moments as the Gunners dropped points in the run-in against Blackburn, Aston Villa, Bolton and, fatally, Leeds.

Others were far more culpable for Arsenal’s collapse, but is it too much to ask of the world’s supposedly best player to deliver match-winning moments when it mattered most?

Five of Henry’s 20 assists came in Arsenal’s final two matches against Southampton and Sunderland, by which point the title had been squandered, the pressure lifted.

Bruno Fernandes, who broke Henry’s record in similarly breezy conditions, finished 27th in this year’s Ballon d’Or voting.

Mohamed Salah registered three more Premier League goal contributions than Henry managed in 2002-03 and, crucially, actually won the Premier League title. He didn’t even make the Ballon d’Or podium in 2025.

Of course, Liverpool’s Egyptian King didn’t go particularly far in the Champions League; Arne Slot’s Reds were knocked out on penalties by eventual champions PSG in the Round of 16.

Fair enough. But Henry’s European record in 2002-03 doesn’t exactly stand up to scrutiny either.

The forward’s hat-trick away to Roma was one of the outstanding individual performances of that Champions League campaign, following an excellent opening group stage.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t sustain it. Four matches without a goal or assist followed; Arsenal drew every one of them, and a 2-1 defeat to Valencia sent them packing despite Henry getting on the scoresheet.

And look at the opposition in the second group stage. That season, Roma finished eighth in Serie A, Valencia fifth in La Liga and Ronald Koeman’s Ajax were only runners-up in the Eredivisie. Group of death it absolutely wasn’t.

Arsenal’s season wasn’t a complete write-off. They won the FA Cup, and Henry was named Man of the Match in the final against Southampton after a lively display and a clever pass in the build-up to Robert Pires’ winner.

But we’re talking about a not-even-pre-assist here. Is that what you’re going to show in his Ballon d’Or reel? Henry scored once and notched zero assists in five cup appearances, while Sylvain Wiltord was the big-game player in the headline victories at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge. Henry entered both games as a late substitute with Arsenal already two goals ahead.

Henry’s strongest argument remains the simplest: watch him play. He looked like the best player in the world in 2003. Contrary to how we judge the Ballon d’Or today, that was once enough. No Champions League winner claimed the award between Jean-Pierre Papin in 1991 and Kaka in 2007. Things were considerably more vibey back then, and arguably all the better for it.

But the eye test isn’t everything. Henry’s brilliance was beyond question, yet his 2002-03 campaign lacked the legacy-defining performances on the biggest stages that you’d expect from a Ballon d’Or winner.

Nedved’s numbers were modest compared with Henry’s, but 14 goals and 14 assists from midfield represented an excellent return as Juventus retained the Scudetto.

Most importantly, he delivered when it mattered, scoring against Inter in a crucial Serie A victory, Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals and Real Madrid in the semis.

His semi-final heroics against Madrid had shades of Roy Keane’s iconic performance against Juventus in 1999.

Both midfielders were suspended for the final after helping get their teams there, but Juve couldn’t make it over the line in the absence of their talisman.

“I am very happy,” Nedved responded at the time.

“I did not think I would beat Thierry Henry, Paolo Maldini or Zinedine Zidane and if I had voted I would have voted for Thierry and for the other players on the podium.”

Indeed, Henry wasn’t the only other player with a legitimate candidacy. Maldini finished just five points behind him in third, having captained AC Milan to Champions League glory. The legendary defender was named Man of the Match after keeping Juventus out for 120 minutes in the snoozefest final.

Shevchenko, Zidane and Van Nistelrooy completed a formidable top six. The holder Ronaldo won three trophies and scored 30 goals in his debut season at Real Madrid, including an iconic hat-trick at Old Trafford. There was no shortage of strong contenders that year.

Was Henry the best footballer in the world in 2003? Quite possibly. Was he the most deserving Ballon d’Or candidate? Maybe, but not unquestionably so.

Treating Nedved’s victory as an outrageous injustice is deeply unfair to a genuinely brilliant footballer who deserved his flowers.