‘I love Naija’, Henry clarifies bad luck joke

Former France footballer now turned television pundit, Thierry Henry, has clarified social media insinuation that Nigeria’s jersey brings bad luck. Nigeria is not one of the 48 teams at the 2026 FIFA World Cup but the country’s jersey short was donned by internet live streamer iShowSpeed to watch the match between USA and Paraguay. However […]

Former France footballer now turned television pundit, Thierry Henry, has clarified social media insinuation that Nigeria’s jersey brings bad luck.

Nigeria is not one of the 48 teams at the 2026 FIFA World Cup but the country’s jersey short was donned by internet live streamer iShowSpeed to watch the match between USA and Paraguay.

However the popular streamer wore the US jersey shirt on the Nigeria short, leading to jokes in the Fox Sports studio.

Henry joined co-pundit Zlatan Ibrahimovic to question iShowSpeed’s decision to combine the jerseys of two countries to a football match, while Henry stated severally that it is bad luck.

However, the video was not well received by netizens of Nigeria who saw the video posted on various social media platforms.

It was concluded that Henry, who was crowned Igwe by Nigeria fans during his playing days at Arsenal, identified the Nigerian jersey with bad luck, but the 48-year-old pundit quickly shot down the negative comments with a video response on Sunday.

Henry recounted the episode and clarified that the phrase was a joke, while Arsenal’s record goalscorer further confessed his respect and love for Nigeria.

“iShowSpeed yesterday had the short of Nigeria and the top of the US, so I just said to him it is bad luck to break the jersey set. It could have been the short of France, Italy, or Spain I would have said the same thing.”

“I was just having a little joke with him saying it will bring bad luck, not Nigeria is bad luck, but to break the jersey set because you go as a set, and I even said that I love Naija.

“By the way I do have mad respect for Nigeria, and the people there, a lot of Arsenal fans out there, so don’t misunderstand stuff please, Nigeria is never bad luck.”

Nigeria failed to book a place at the ongoing World Cup after finishing second in the qualifiers, and falling to Congo DR in the continental playoffs.

The Super Eagles missed consecutive World Cups for the first time since their first appearance at USA 1994.