• by Steve Ellwanger , February 23, 2023

European football icon Thierry Henry is the face of the new “No Lay’s, No Game” brand platform for the Frito-Lay chips brand.

For nearly a decade, Lay’s has been the official snack partner of the Union of European Football Associations Champions League. Now the brand wants to cement the bond between watching football—AKA known as soccer to Americans—and munching on its salty chips.

Henry made unannounced visits to fans’ homes in Barcelona two hours before the start of a Champion’s League football match.

His proposition was that he would stay to watch the game with them but only if there were Lay’s in the household.

As seen in this spot, his greeters—including a man who proffers two raw potatoes—were surprised, pleased and often frustrated when Henry declared “No Lay’s, no game.”

One woman sheds a tear as a voice begins singing “No Lay’s no game” to the tune of the song “All By Myself” popularized in 1975 by Eric Carmen.

“We are so proud to enlist a legend like Thierry Henry to help football fans across the globe build bonds and to serve as the only snack the makes the game complete,” PepsiCo vice president of marketing for global food brands Ciara Dilley said in a news release. “It’s unthinkable to watch football without Lay’s.”

Among other teams, Henry played for FC Barcelona and the London-based Arsenal Football Club.

The Championship League’s final matches are scheduled for June at Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.