On SBnation’s New York regional site, one of the writers said he’d be a 25+ goal a year player, which to me is a ridiculous statement. If he comes in and plays a serious game, he can become one of the best players, but if he thinks this is a way to get one final big payday and then ride off into the sunset, then he’s sadly mistaken. The game between the Red Bulls and DC on Saturday makes me think he won’t deal with the physical play as well as people expect.

While I don’t think he’ll be nearly as amazing as the RBNY marketing department would like you to think, his move is great for the visibility of soccer in the United States. It’s strange to think the only professional soccer team in one of the biggest cities in the world, with millions of immigrants from soccer-loving nations, doesn’t have nearly as strong a fanbase as it should. As much as the DCU fan part of me hates to say it, the legitimacy of a club in New York is integral to the legitimacy of soccer in the US. Henry is the first step towards that.

MLS has picked some great expansion cities (Toronto, Seattle and Philly), and there’s great hope for Vancouver, Montreal and Portland, too. Having said that, NYRB needs to succeed with that outstanding stadium for our league to flourish in the future. Oh, and we need a stadium!

Ok Beau Dure is disputing my claim that Henry at his peak is better than any other MLS player ever at their peak by citing Lothar Matthaus. Fair enough. I guess I was only considering players who made a remote impact on MLS.

Who else might be in consideration for this honor?

He is a great player, or was and in MLS probably will be a great player, but shouldn’t we wait until he at least steps out onto the pitch and plays a match or two before we start throwing honors his way. We have seen this type of hype before, and most often it doesn’t live up to the hype. Could be a big empty jersey out there.

I doubt that Henry will be the best player in MLS history. Of course, you can’t say that about MLS’s Ballon D’Or winners (Mattheus and Stoitchkov) or the biggest “name” in league history (Beckham) either. My doubts are based on a feeling that, while Henry isn’t treating MLS as a retirement home, he also isn’t likely to have the same kind of focus or desire that he had at Arsenal or with France when they were good.

If he brought that level of intensity to these shores, he’d have a real shot at being an all-time MLS great. His peak ability as a player was just as good as that of Mattheus and Stoitchkov, for example (who won their World Player of the Year awards in what I’ve always regarded as a down cycle in top-class soccer players).

I expect Henry to do quite well, but I don’t think he’ll crush all MLS records like a man among boys. He’ll score a lot of goals and get a lot of assists by setting up Angel (MLS right backs should be worried, as Henry loves to drift to the left). I don’t think he’ll score 25 goals a year; such an opinion shows blatant disrespect to MLS defenses. I see him being a real threat for double digits in both categories, though, and if you partner someone like that with Angel (a regular threat to top 15 goals), and support them with guys like Lindpere, Richards, and the ever-improving Ubiparipovic, you likely have the best offense in MLS.

Henry doesn’t have to be an all-conquering one-man winning machine to succeed in MLS. If NY wins games in style while Henry is there, that would be more than enough.

There are a lot of people voting “Yes” who aren’t elaborating in comment form. I wish they would.