Thierry Henry snubbed Cristiano Ronaldo when naming best Premier League player ever

Thierry Henry overlooked all the usual suspects - including himself - when picking out the best player of all time. The French winner, who scored 226 goals in 370 games for , is widely considered one of the greatest footballers ever to grace the English game.

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner is also a popular choice for the Premier League's GOAT, along with fellow legend , heroes and , and playmaker . But Henry feels the accolade belongs to a different player entirely.

"I would have to go Paul Scholes," he told in 2016. "I don't think people have given him the credit he deserves. [He is] one of the best, if not the best, I've played against. He could do anything."

Scholes made more than 700 appearances and surpassed 150 goals for boyhood club United, with whom he won 11 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two Champions Leagues and two Carabao Cups. But unlike other greats of his era, he did not produce his best on the international stage.

With fellow Premier League greats Gerrard and Frank Lampard to accommodate, Scholes was often left out or shoehorned into unfamiliar territory which, according to Henry, was the wrong approach to take.

He continued: "Unfortunately for him, when he was playing for the national team, for England, sometimes people didn't see it. If I had a Paul Scholes in my team, everything would be around him. At Manchester United, they saw it like that, but I think Paul Scholes is one of the best I've played against in this league, and seen anywhere."

Scholes is often hailed as an underrated Premier League player who did not have the goals record to match Lampard, and who did not stand out in United's stacked line-up like Gerrard did at Liverpool.

Henry is not the only generational talent to have talked up the United legend, as Barcelona icon Xavi also thinks highly of him. "In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen, the most complete, is Scholes," said the Spaniard.

"He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn't give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more."