Thierry Henry
) is a
French football player and regarded as one of the best players in the world. He currently plays as a
striker for the
French national team, and for the
English club
Arsenal, where he is the club's all-time leading scorer in both league matches and all competitions.
Henry has been nominated twice for the
FIFA World Player of the Year, both times finishing runner-up in 2003 and 2004. Also, he was named by
Pelé as one of the
top 125 greatest living footballers in March
2004. [
1]
He has surpassed
Ian Wright to take over as Arsenal's all-time leading scorer with over 200 goals for the club. In 2006, Henry was the first player to score more than twenty goals in five consecutive seasons (2002â€"2006); winning the
European Golden Boot in 2004 and then sharing it with
Diego Forlán in 2005.
On
19 May 2006, despite months of speculation linking him with Spanish club
FC Barcelona, he renewed his contract at Arsenal under a 4-year deal until 2010.
["Henry to stay a Gunner until 2010", BBC Sport, 19 May 2006. 21 May 2006.]Early career
Henry trained at the
French Football Federation's academy at
Clairefontaine and played at a youth level for CO Les Ulis (1983â€"1989), then Palaiseau (1989â€"1990), Viry-Châtillon (1990â€"1992) and FC Versailles (1992â€"1993). Henry started his professional career at
AS Monaco and was given his début in
1994 by then Monaco manager,
Arsène Wenger, at the age of 17. Thierry was put on the left wing by Wenger instead of playing his natural role of
striker because the striker position was already occupied by
Brazilian Sonny Anderson.
Juventus career
Having impressed in the
French national team's triumph in the
1998 World Cup, Henry left Monaco and moved to
Italian club
Juventus in January 1999 for £10.7 million. At Juventus, Thierry was made to play on the wing and in an unfamiliar position he was unable to cope with Italian defensive discipline, scoring just three goals while starting only 12 games for the
Bianconeri.
Arsenal career
Unsettled in
Italy, he transferred from
Juventus in August
1999 to
Arsenal for £10.5 Million, reuniting with his former manager at Monaco, Wenger. At Arsenal, Wenger brought Henry back to his familiar role of a striker. At first some doubted whether he was cut out for the English Premiership, failing to score in his first ten games. However, he has flourished ever since first finding the net; Henry has been Arsenal's top goalscorer for each of the seven seasons he has been with the club.
He was made Arsenal captain in the summer of
2005, succeeding the recently departed
Patrick Vieira. Regarded by many as Arsenal's best player ever, on
October 18 2005 Henry became the club's top goalscorer of all time; two goals against
Sparta Prague meant he broke
Ian Wright's record of 185 first-class goals. On February 1, 2006, he scored a goal against
West Ham, bringing his
league goal tally up to 151 and thus breaking
Cliff Bastin's Arsenal league goals record. The
2005â€"06 season also saw him score his 100th league goal at Highbury, a feat unparalleled in the history of the club, and a unique achievement in the Premier League. He also contributes a large number of
assists - most notably 23 in the
2002â€"03 season â€" an all-time Premiership record.
On
May 7,
2006 Henry scored a
hat-trick against Wigan Athletic in the club's final game at
Highbury. In an emotionally-charged game that ended with Arsenal securing a place in next season's Champions League ahead of local rivals
Tottenham Hotspur, the last of Henry's three strikes and the final goal at the old stadium, was a penalty in front of the North Bank. After scoring the penalty, Henry knelt down in a final gesture to kiss the Highbury pitch goodbye.
In the
UEFA Champions League 2005-06, Arsenal led the group stages and only conceded 2 goals leading up to the final in Paris. A strike from Henry gave Arsenal a 1-0 win on aggregate against Spanish Giants
Real Madrid in the first knockout round. An assist to Fabregas and a goal knocked Juventus out of the quarter-finals. Henry met
Barcelona in a star-studded
final in
Paris on
May 17,
2006. The match started badly for Arsenal as goalkeeper
Jens Lehmann fouled
Samuel Eto'o and was subsequently sent off. Nevertheless, Arsenal took the lead through a
Sol Campbell goal, eventually losing 2-1. Henry attracted harsh criticism for missing chances to secure the trophy for Arsenal, being denied twice by the Barcelona goalkeeper
Victor Valdes.
Throughout the
2005-06 season Henry was linked with a move to Barcelona or
Real Madrid; however he eventually decided to stay with Arsenal, declaring his loyalty and love for the club and accepting a four-year contract after the Champions League final
.
Henry is currently third in the list of all-time English Premiership goal scorers, 96 goals behind
Alan Shearer who is in first place, and 21 goals behind
Andy Cole in second place.
Arsenal vice-chairman
David Dein claimed the club turned down two bids of £50 million "from Spanish clubs" for Thierry Henry before the signing of the new contract. If either of these bids had been accepted it would have made Henry the most expensive player in the world - breaking the previous transfer record of £47million paid by Spanish side
Real Madrid for
Zinedine Zidane in 2001.
Thierry Henry scored Arsenal's first ever goal in the Emirates Stadium on 22 July 2006, during Dennis Bergkamp's Testmonial.
Awards
Henry has received many plaudits and awards. He was runner-up for the
2003 and
2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award while helping Arsenal to an unbeaten record (26 wins, 12 draws) in the Premiership . He has also won the
Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year three times, the
PFA Players' Player of the Year twice, and the French Player Of The Year on four occasions â€" an all-time record. In
2004â€"05, despite Arsenal being the runners-up in the
Premiership, Henry emerged with the European Golden Boot for the second consecutive year (albeit sharing it with
Villarreal's
Diego Forlan in
2005). He is the first ever player to retain the award.
International career
The Frenchman made his international debut in November
1997 against
South Africa. Four months earlier, he played for the
U-20 French national team in the
1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He played in France's
1998 FIFA World Cup championship team, on which he was their top-scorer with three goals. Henry was scheduled to appear in the final â€" where France beat
Brazil 3-0 â€" as a substitute, but a
red card forced a defensive change instead. On
Bastille Day 1998, he was awarded France's highest decoration, the
Légion d'Honneur.
Henry was a member of the championship squad, again scoring 3 goals and finishing as France's top scorer, including the equalizer against
Portugal in the semi-final. France would later win the game in
extra time thanks to a
penalty kick by team captain
Zinedine Zidane.
However, the
2002 FIFA World Cup featured a stunning early exit for both Henry and France as the reigning champions were eliminated in the group stage after failing to score a goal in any contest. After France lost their first match in group play, Henry was red carded for a sliding, studs-up challenge in their next match against
Uruguay. France played to a 0-0 draw, but Henry was forced to miss the final match due to suspension which France lost 2-0 to
Denmark.
The next year, Henry would return to form at the
2003 Confederations Cup. France, playing without team stalwarts Zidane and Vieira, won in large part to Henry's spectacular play for which he was named
Man of the Match by FIFA's Technical Study Group in three of France's five matches. In the final, he scored the
golden goal in extra time to lift the host country over
Cameroon 1-0. Henry was awarded both the adidas Golden Ball as the outstanding player of the competition and the adidas Golden Shoe as the tournament's top goalscorer.[
2]
Henry also played in all of France's games in the in which the team beat
England in the group stages but lost to the eventual winners
Greece 1-0 in the quarter-finals.
Henry was one of the automatic starters in the France squad at the
2006 FIFA World Cup. He was played in the unfavoured lone striker role, but despite an indifferent start to the tournament, Henry became one of the top players of the World Cup. He scored three goals - including France's goal against returning champion and tournament favourite
Brazil - and earned two fouls in two knockout-round games that led to decisive scores, although he was criticised by some commentators for faking a facial injury when winning a foul against
Spain. France eventually lost to
Italy on penalties 1-1 (5-3) in the final. Henry was one of 10 nominees for the Golden Ball award for Player of the Tournament, an award which was ultimately presented to his teammate, Zinedine Zidane.
Thierry Henry is the only player ever to have won three
FWA Footballer of the Year awards, in 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Club career
(correct as of May 4, 2006)International career
| National team | Season | Apps | Goals |
|---|
| France | 1997-98 | 9 | 3 |
| 1998-99 | 2 | - |
| 1999-00 | 10 | 5 |
| 2000-01 | 8 | 2 |
| 2001-02 | 9 | 2 |
| 2002-03 | 13 | 10 |
| 2003-04 | 12 | 5 |
| 2004-05 | 8 | 2 |
| 2005-06 | 11 | 7 |
| Total | 83 | 36 |
|---|
On
May 27,
2005, Henry celebrated the birth of his first child, a daughter named Tea Henry. Henry is married to
English model Nicole Merry. He lives with his family in
Hampstead,
North London. Of
Antillean heritage (his father is from
Guadeloupe and his mother is from
Martinique), he is fluent in
French,
Antillean Creole,
English and
Italian.
With the French national team:
*
FIFA World Cup**Appearances: 1998, 2002, 2006
**Winner: 1998
**Runner-Up: 2006
*
European Championship**Winner: 2000
**Appearances: 2000, 2004
*
Confederations Cup: 2003
With
Monaco:
*
Ligue 1: 1996-97
*
French Super Cup: 1997
With
Arsenal:
*
FA Premier League: 2001-02, 2003-04
*
FA Cup: 2002, 2003, 2005
*
FA Community Shield: 2002, 2004
*
UEFA Champions League Runner Up : 2006
*
UEFA Cup Runner Up : 2000Personal Honours:
*
European Golden Boot: 2004, 2005
*
FA Premier League Top Scorer: 2001-2002, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006
*
Onze d´Or: 2003
*
Premiership Player of the Season: 2006
Luis Aragonés became Spain's coach in 2004. During a training session with the national team, a Spanish TV crew caught Aragonés motivating Henry's Arsenal teammate
José Antonio Reyes in a strange way ("Give him the ball, and then show that black little shit that you are better than him.") The incident caused an uproar in the British media with calls for Aragonés to be sacked. When Spain played England in a
friendly match at the
Bernabéu later that year, the crowd was hostile. Whenever black English players touched the ball, large segments of the Spanish crowd began to make "monkey chants."[
3][
4] The Spanish football federation eventually fined the coach €3,000.[
5]
After an investigation,
UEFA fined the RFEF 100,000 Swiss francs and warned that future incidents would be punished more severely, from suspension from major international tournaments or the closure of Spain's home international matches to supporters.
Henry and
Nike started the
Stand Up Speak Up campaign against football racism as a result of the incident. He was also a part of
Nike's
Joga Bonito campaign,
Portuguese for "Play beautifully".
*On April 12, 2006, signed a deal to join
Reebok in the "I Am What I Am" campaign on
August 1,
2006.
*Appeared in the
Nike Secret Tournament adverts in
2002; teamed with
Hidetoshi Nakata and
Francesco Totti, he heads home the winning goal after vaulting off Totti's back to surprise
Ronaldo,
Figo and
Roberto Carlos.
*Featured in the
Renault Clio adverts during
2003-
2005 where he made popular the word
va-va-voom meaning life or passion. The word was subsequently added to the Oxford Concise English Dictionary.
*During the 2006 World Cup Henry was the star of a TV advert for
Pepsi Gold, a limited edition Pepsi brand launched in
Sweden,
Iceland,
Poland,
Egypt,
Romania and
Lebanon.
*No French player has ever outscored Henry at any of the World Cups he has played in. He scored three goals in 1998, none in 2002 (when the entire French team went scoreless), and three in 2006.
*He supports the
NBA team
San Antonio Spurs.He is good friends with the French basketball superstar
Tony Parker who also plays for the Spurs.
*On July 22, 2006, Henry became the first Arsenal player to score at the new Emirates Stadium, assisting Arsenal to a 2-1 win over Ajax in
Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial.
*In the 2005-2006 season Thierry Henry scored more Premiership goals (27) than the entire Sunderland squad put together (26).
*Thierry Henry owns a
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren,
Porsche Carrera GT and an
Aston Martin Vanquish.
*
Statistics at soccerbase.com
*
Profile at arsenal.com
*
Profile at 4thegame.com
*
Profile at sporting-heroes.net
*
Profile at premierleague.com
* }}
{{Persondata
NAME=Henry, Thierry Daniel | ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | SHORT DESCRIPTION=Professional football player | DATE OF BIRTH=August 17, 1977 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Les Ulis, France | DATE OF DEATH= | PLACE OF DEATH=
|
