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- ⚽ Player Friday - Thierry Henry (Edition #2)
⚽ Player Friday - Thierry Henry (Edition #2)
What you must know about Thierry Henry
This is the 2nd edition of this newsletter. The idea is to write about one of the legendary players each Friday. It should be fun and interesting. I don’t know why, but I’ve decided to write about legendary french Thierry Henry this time.
Thierry Daniel Henry has been born on 17 August 1977, in the Les Ulis suburb of Paris, France. He was noticed as a talent from a very early age. And at 13 years old Thierry was already followed by Monaco scouts.
Interestingly, Henry joined Monaco’s youth team led by Arsene Wenger who has been working with French talent for many years. At 17 years old, Thierry Henry debuted in his first professional game against Nice.
The development of a player was really fast, Henry beat many records even by being really young.
In 1999, the future’s gunner moved to Juventus, but not for long.
Legendary move to Arsenal
In the same year, 1999, Thierry Henry reunited with his former coach Arsene Wenger and joined Arsenal F.C. Here was the place where Thierry became a superstar and a true legend.
The gunner played at Arsenal till 2007, before moving to Barcelona. But let’s talk more about this glorious period.
During his years in Arsenal F.C.:
Thierry Henry appeared in 376 games and scored 228 goals (including a couple of months when he was loaned back for 2 months in 2012);
He became the top-scoring player in the Premier League in 2002;
That was repeated in 2004 once again;
In the golden 2004 season, Arsenal together with Henry remained unbeaten in Premier League;
On 17 October 2005, Henry became the club's top goalscorer of all time;
Arsenal, led by Henry reached the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final, sadly the Gunners eventually lost 2–1 to Barcelona;
2006-2007 was hard for the legend due to many injuries, nevertheless, the striker managed to score 10 goals in 17 domestic matches.
Barcelona time
That was unexpected for many, but Thierry Henry was transferred to Barcelona in 2007 for €24 million. The footballer left Arsenal as the club's leading all-time league goalscorer with 174 goals and leading all-time goalscorer in European competitions with 42 goals. But the time in Barcelona F.C. wasn’t bad either.
During his 3 years period in Barcelona, Thierry Henry managed to:
Score 49 goals within 121 matches (19 goals in the national league in his debut season);
Win Champions League in the 2008-2009 season;
Won the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2009.
Retirement in the USA and short comeback to the UK
In 2010, Thierry Henry moved to New York Red Bulls, a soccer club as Americans say. He had to show how to play football.
The first couple of seasons were slow. However, Henry showed a nice performance. Scored goals and collected assists.
Moreover, he was loaned to Arsenal in 2012 and came back to the United Kingdom for short two months. The striker even managed to score a winning goal in one of the Premier League games. That one goal is considered the 228th goal for Arsenal F.C.
Fun fact: Henry didn’t get his jersey number - 14, because it was taken by Theo Walcott who used this number in his honor. So Thierry had to play using 12.
After a short time in Arsenal, he went back to the USA and became the highest-paid player in the MLS league.
During his whole career in New York, Thierry Henry scored 52 goals within 135 games. Also, added 42 assists. No titles with Red Bulls whatsoever.
National France team
Thierry Henry is considered one of the best players in the national team of France.
The player is one of the top scorers, has one of the top numbers of appearances, and won the gold in the 1998, World Cup at home. Henry scored 3 goals in total in that tournament.
Moreover, Henry won Euro 2000 with legendary Zinedine Zidane. The player ended the tournament with 3 goals and was the most scoring player of France's national team.
The legend, the true gunner, and the superstar ended his professional career as a player on January 1, 2015.
The coaching, pundit, and continuing love for football
After Thierry Henry ended his career as a player, Henry became a manager, a coach, a face in some TV shows, a commentator, and a beloved persona of football. But that’s a topic for another letter, sometime in the future.
The legendary player even invested in Serie B football club Como in August 2022.
Some interesting facts about Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry was one of the most commercially successful footballers of all time;
The player's Renault commercials popularized “va-va-voom”, which was later adopted by the Oxford Dictionary as a term meaning “exciting, vigorous, or sexually attractive”;
Henry used to hang out a lot with Kobe Bryant, also was a huge San Antonio Spurs fan.
The key facts for nerds
Arsenal
Total appearances - 376;
Goals scored - 228;
Assists made - 103.
Monaco
Total appearances - 141;
Goals scored - 28;
Assists made - 3.
New York Red Bulls
Total appearances - 135;
Goals scored - 52;
Assists made - 42.
FC Barcelona
Total appearances - 121;
Goals scored - 49;
Assists made - 27.
Juventus FC
Total appearances - 20;
Goals scored - 3;
Assists made - 2.
National team
Total appearances - 123;
Goals scored - 51.
That’s the end of this edition. It is a bit long, but I hope informative and interesting enough. I’ve left some of the information behind about Henry’s current stage of life, well, it still continues and I hope there are going to be many inspiring stories awaiting us in the future.
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