Football: Barclays Top Player |06 December 2013

Henriette hopeful of top football award

La Passe captain Achille Henriette was selected as the Barclays footballer of the month for October and November.

Ironically, Henriette received his award at half time in the penultimate league match at home to Côte D’Or where they could only earn a draw to allow the Praslin side to edge them to the Barclays league crown.

Therefore Henriette’s individual honour counted for nothing that day as La Passe grieved the loss of the coveted title while Côte D’Or celebrated on La Digue.

Sports Nation caught up with Henriette to seek his views about this award and to reflect on another trophy-less season for his team.

“I am happy to have won this award as I feel I had scored some vital goals as the season drew to a close to keep my team in the title hunt,” reflects the midfielder.

Henriette though, was very disappointed to lose the league title when he felt his team were so close.

“It is nice to win individual awards but I wanted also to add team titles which would have been a real achievement,” Henriette told Sports Nation.

The La Passe skipper though is critical of his own team as he felt they are to blame for allowing the title to slip from their grasp.

“It was an interesting season but at times it was our own fault that we did not win the league as we are too inconsistent where we lose matches that we were expected to win,” noted the former St Louis midfielder who points to only two losses namely to The Lions in the first round and their bitter rivals Anse Reunion in the second round which proved costly.

“I also feel that some players are not serious enough because at times I had to play as a striker which shows that we lack strength in depth in this areas,” Henriette said as he was also critical of the foreign players as he feels they did not live up to expectations.

“We need to improve in different areas even in coaching if we are to have a better return next season,” Henriette thinks.

Henriette enjoyed a good outing last week though as he captained the national squad to lift the inaugural Seychelles-Maldives cup where he was also voted the best player of the tournament which really pleased him.

“I was very surprised with the way we played as a team despite it was the end of the season and I was really impressed with our performances and more so to be chosen as the best player once again was the icing on the cake,” Henriette claimed.

The 26-year-old footballer though believes that a lot of credit must go to national team coach Jan Mak whose knowledge of the game inspired confidence in the team which had had only one week to prepare for this tournament.

“Coach Mak is a first class coach and his advice was very helpful and made the difference,” Henriette said.

The La Passe player now feels confident that he is the favourite to win the footballer of the year title after winning those two individual awards as well as finishing as the third best scorer with twelve goals this season.

As for his future, Henriette says that he will be staying with La Passe for a fifth season as he aims to win a title and wants his team to focus on the first title on offer which will be the Airtel cup next season, where this season they started well but fell at the semi final hurdle to their bogey team Côte D’Or.

Henriette is surely a top contender to claim his second best footballer award after winning it in 2011.