Players who will be remembered for the wrong reasons - Part 3
Thierry Daniel Henry was discovered by a Monaco scout during a match where Henry scored all six goals to power his club to a 6-0 win. He joined Arsene Wenger’s Monaco youth team where he flourished as a player and soon, he signed a professional form with the club and made his debut in 1994. He started off on the left wing because of his pace and ball control and in his first season with the club, the Frenchman scored 3 goals in 18 appearances.
In 1996, Henry won the French Young Footballer award and his unfaltering effort helped his side win the Ligue 1 title in the 1996/1997 season. By next season, he was an integral part of the club and played an important part in leading them to the Champions League semi-final, scoring 7 goals in the process to set up a new French record. It was about the time that he started his third season that he received a call up from the national team and ended up being part of the side that won the World Cup in 1998.
He had an impressive run at Monaco, scoring 20 goals in 105 league appearances, but in 1999 he moved to Serie A club Juventus for a transfer fee of £10.5 million. However, his short season at Juventus was a disappointment as the Frenchman proved to be ineffective in Italy. He only scored 3 goals in his 16 appearances for the club and in August 1999, Henry moved to London club Arsenal to reunite with former Monaco manager Arsene Wenger.
It was at Arsenal under Wenger that Henry developed into a goal scoring legend. Even though he previously played as a winger, he was brought in by Wenger as a forward to replace fellow countryman Nicolas Anelka. He had trouble adjusting to the role at first and the pace of English football, even admitting that he had to “be re-taught everything about the art of striking.” However, at the end of the season, the stats said otherwise. Arsenal finished second to United with Henry claimed 26 goals in his first season.
In only his second season, Henry established himself as the club’s top goal scorer. During that season, Arsenal were considered to have one of the best attacking line up’s in the entire Premier League and it took the London side a short while to close the gap on the competition for the domestic title. In his third season, he led Arsenal to their first league title in a long time. Arsenal were 7 points clear at the top of the league who defeated Chelsea to win the FA Cup in the same year.
The 2002/2003 season proved to be more successful than the last where Henry scored a total of 32 goals and 23 assists in all competitions. Even though Arsenal failed to retain the English Premier League crown, they repeated their success in the FA Cup. He was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year but lost out on the 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year award, finishing as runners up. Henry carried his success into the next few season, winning the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award again and with 39 goals in all competitions, the Frenchman led his team to the EPL title and claimed the European Golden Boot as well.
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