Henry, Thierry

Thierry Henry, in full Thierry Daniel Henry, (born August 17, 1977, Châtillon, France), French football (soccer) player and manager who scored more international goals (51) than any other player in France’s history and who is considered one of the most prolific goal scorers of his time.

Henry, of French West Indian ancestry, spent his childhood in low-income housing in Les Ulis, south of Paris. He joined FC Versailles in 1992, and, after attracting other club scouts, he was signed by AS Monaco in 1994. (He was AS Monaco’s youngest first-team player until Kylian Mbappé made his debut in December 2015.) Although Henry played as a striker until he was 17, he switched to left wing for Monaco. Monaco won the 1997 French club championship, and Henry’s game noticeably improved. Midway through the 1998–99 season, a contract mix-up almost sent him to Real Madrid; instead, he was transferred to Juventus in Turin, Italy, for £9 million. Seven months later he was on the move again in a £10.5-million deal to join English powerhouse Arsenal.

Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger shifted Henry to striker, giving him more responsibility at the cutting edge of the attack, and the Frenchman soon revealed his true ability. With a deceivingly casual approach, Henry glided past opposing players, initiated and finished moves, and scored goals either with a light touch from short range or fiercely from long distances. In eight seasons with Arsenal he scored a club-record 174 goals, and the team won two league titles (2002 and 2004) and two Football Association Cup trophies (2002 and 2003). In mid-2004 Henry clinched the 2003–04 Golden Shoe as Europe’s leading association football goal scorer (with 30) and helped Arsenal to another Premier League championship. Henry was honoured as European Footballer of the Year for 2002 and 2003 and finished runner-up as Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. In 2006 Arsenal advanced to the Champions League final. Although they lost to FC Barcelona, it was the best Champions League finish in the history of the club.

In 2007 Henry was transferred to Barcelona for a £16 million fee. There he was a key member of the 2009 team that captured Barcelona’s first “treble” by winning the national first-division title, Spain’s major domestic cup (Copa del Rey), and the continental championship (Champions League). His play fell off the next year, and he was released by Barcelona in 2010. Henry then signed with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer (MLS). In January 2012 he rejoined Arsenal for a two-month loan during the MLS off-season. Henry retired from professional football in December 2014.

Henry’s international honours while playing for France were equally impressive. In 1996 he was a member of the European under-18 championship team, and two years later he played on the French national team that won the FIFA World Cup. In 2000 France added a European championship, and in 2003 Henry had a triple success when he scored the winning goal for France in the FIFA Confederations Cup and was awarded both the Golden Ball (as top player of the tournament) and the Golden Shoe (as top scorer). First selected to play for his country in 1997, Henry scored his 42nd goal in 2007 to become his country’s all-time leading scorer in international competition.

After his playing career ended, Henry began working as a TV analyst in 2015, and that year he also became coach of Arsenal’s under-16 team. However, in July 2016 he left Arsenal when he was forced to choose between staying on as a coach or continuing his TV work. The following month he became an assistant coach for the Belgian national team, and the squad took third place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Shortly thereafter Henry became manager of his former club Monaco, but his tenure lasted only three months, for he was fired in January 2019 as Monaco struggled. Later that year he was named head coach of the MLS club Montreal Impact (later renamed CF Montreal). However, he stepped down in 2021, citing family reasons. Later that year Henry rejoined the Belgian national team as an assistant coach. He helped Belgium advance to the quarterfinals of the 2020 European Championship—which was held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic—but the team lost to Italy, the eventual winner of the tournament.