Thierry Henry

FBL - ESP - BARCELONA - RACING SANTANDER
Originally uploaded by Josep Lago Dalmases

Henry is of Antillean heritage: his father, Antoine, is from Guadeloupe (La Désirade island), and his mother, Maryse, is from Martinique. He was born and raised in a tough environment in the heavily urbanised Les Ulis district of Paris which, despite its hardships, provided good footballing facilities. As a six-year-old, Henry showed great potential, prompting Claude Chezelle to recruit him to the local club CO Les Ulis. His father pressured him to attend training, although the youngster was not particularly drawn to football. He joined US Palaiseau in 1989, but after a year his father fell out with the club, so Henry moved to Viry-Châtillon for two years.US Palaiseau coach Jean-Marie Panza, Henry's future mentor, followed him there.

Barcelona (2007–present)

Training with Barça

At Barcelona, Henry was given the number 14 jersey, the same number he had previously worn at Arsenal. He scored his first goal for his new club on 19 September 2007 in a Champions League match against Lyon, which Barcelona won 3–0; on 29 September 2007 in a La Liga match against Levante, he recorded his first hat-trick for Barcelona. However, with Henry mostly deployed on the wing throughout the season, he was unable to reproduce the goal-scoring form he achieved with Arsenal. Barcelona was also unable to win any silverware for the second year running, leading to much uncertainty surrounding the Catalan club. Henry concluded his debut season as club's overall top scorer with 19 goals, ahead of Samuel Eto'o (18 goals) and Lionel Messi (16 goals).


International career

Henry has had a successful career with the French national team. His international career began in June 1997, when his good form for Monaco was rewarded with a call-up to the Under-20 French national team, where he played in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside future teammates William Gallas and David Trezeguet. Within four months, France head coach Aimé Jacquet called Henry up to the senior team. The 20-year-old made his senior international debut on October 11, 1997 in a 2–1 win against South Africa. Jacquet was so impressed with Henry that he took him to the 1998 World Cup. Although Henry was a largely unknown quantity at international level, he ended the tournament as France's top scorer with three goals. He was scheduled to appear as a substitute in the final, where France beat Brazil 3–0, but Marcel Desailly's sending off 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 France's Euro 2000 championship squad, again scoring three goals in the tournament, including the equaliser against Portugal in the semi-final, and finishing as the country's top scorer. France later won the game in extra time following a converted penalty kick by Zinedine Zidane. France went on to defeat Italy in extra time in the final, earning Henry his second major international medal.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup featured a stunning early exit for both Henry and France as the defending champions were eliminated in the group stage after failing to score a goal in all three games. France lost their first match in group play and Henry was red carded for a dangerous sliding challenge in their next match against Uruguay. In that game, France played to a 0–0 draw, but Henry was forced to miss the final match due to suspension; France lost 2–0 to Denmark.

Henry returned to form for his country at the 2003 Confederations Cup. Despite playing without team stalwarts Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira, France won, in large part owing to Henry's outstanding 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 title for the host country after a 1–0 victory over Cameroon. 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 goal-scorer with four goals.

In Euro 2004, Henry played in all of France's matches and scored two goals. France beat England in the group stages but lost to the eventual winners Greece 1–0 in the quarter-finals.[39] During the 2006 FIFA World Cup Henry remained as one of the automatic starters in the squad. He played as a lone striker, but despite an indifferent start to the tournament, 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. However, France subsequently lost to Italy on penalties (5–3) in the final. Henry did not take part in the penalty shootout, having been substituted in extra time after his legs had cramped.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, Zidane[41] and was named a starting striker on the 2006 FIFPro World XI team.

On 13 October 2007, Henry scored his 41st goal against the Faroe Islands, joining Michel Platini as the country's top goal-scorer of all time.Four days later at the Stade de la Beaujoire, he scored a late double against Lithuania, thereby setting a new record as France's top goal-scorer.