Despite Coming From A Poor Background He Never Gave Up On His Dream To Play Football An Inspirational Story To All Nigerian Youths.
Henry was born on born 17 August 1977 in Les Ulis, Essonne a suburb of Paris by his dad, Antoine Henry and mother, Maryse Henry.
Both parents were migrants. His father, Antoine, is from Guadeloupe (La Désirade island), and his mother, Maryse, is from Martinique. Both came to France to better their lives.
Henry’s family lived in a small apartment and the living conditions were not very supportive but Antoine encouraged Henry to play sports and invest his energy into athletics. He used to take Henry to local soccer matches. Thierry Henry soon became bonded with other immigrant children of his district through constant participating and improvement in soccer games.
It was soon quite evident that Henry was a way better soccer player than the other children of his age. He started playing for the junior team of Les Ulis and Palaiseau. At the age of 13, Henry started playing for the Viry-Chatillon’s Under-15 team.
His abilities were impressive enough to earn him a spot on CO Les Ulis’ youth club.
Just about the time when Thierry Henry needs his parents most, the unfortunate happened. Both parents separated. It was his mother who won the quest to have custody of Theirry after many battles for child custody.
His mother took him away from his dad and his lovely football town to Orsay where she got him admitted into the Alexander Fleming School to focus on academics. Having known that wasn’t his calling, Thierry Henry later bolted out. He switched to soccer.
At 14, he was elected into the French Football Federation’s Clairefontaine Academy.
At the academy, Henry signed an apprentice contract with the manager of the Monaco team, Arsene Wenger. He made his first professional appearance in football in 1994 in a 2-0 loss against Nice. He was put on the left wing by Wenger.
In 1996, Henry became France’s Young Player of the year under the guidance and training of Arsene Wenger. He led France’s Under-18 team to the European Championship and scored 7 goals in the competition.
As a result of his splendid performances at other tournaments, he became a part of the French FIFA World Cup 1998 team. He continued to play for Monaco and impressed everyone with his brilliant performance. He scored 20 goals in 105 matches.
In 1999, Henry left Monaco and became a part of the Italian Series A club Juventus. He was paid a sum of 10.5 million pounds to join the team. In the same year, he scored his first goal for the team, two in a 3-1 defeat of league leaders Lazio.
After some time, he was transferred to Arsenal for a sum of 11 million pounds and there he was united with his old mentor Arsene Wenger. The rest they say is history.
Thierry Henry meet English model Claire Merry while filming the Renault Clio adverts in 2001. Both fell in love at first sight. On July 5th 2003, they got married at Highclere Castle.
They had their first child, Tea, on May 27th 2005. She is now a grownup.
NBA once organised a special one-on-one interview between Theirry Henry and basketball legend Kobe Bryant, where both the players discussed their footballing idols.
To everyone’s surprise both the players mentioned the name of Dutch star and AC Milan legend, Marco van Basten, who is considered one of the greatest players of his time.
“Marco van Basten was my favourite player,” said Henry. “[He is] one of the best strikers in history. I saw him when I was a child and how he hit the ball was incredible. I tried to imitate his every move.”
NBA once organised a special one-on-one interview between Theirry Henry and basketball legend Kobe Bryant, where both the players discussed their footballing idols.
To everyone’s surprise both the players mentioned the name of Dutch star and AC Milan legend, Marco van Basten, who is considered one of the greatest players of his time.
“Marco van Basten was my favourite player,” said Henry. “[He is] one of the best strikers in history. I saw him when I was a child and how he hit the ball was incredible. I tried to imitate his every move.”
Henry scored some real belters in his time at Arsenal. The Frenchman scored 228 goals for the Gunners and continues to be the highest goalscorer in the London club’s 130 odd-year histories.
However, his favourite goal was not one where he scored a sensation volley or dribbled through a large number of players. It was instead the one he scored against Leeds United in his first game back in an Arsenal shirt.
“That one was personal. It won’t go down in FA Cup history but it was the first time I scored as a fan.”You know, I wasn’t meant to come back and I came back. I wasn’t meant to play, I played. I wasn’t meant to score, I scored. It was so emotional. It wasn’t about technique or the score, it was what it meant to me.”
Despite Arsene Wenger’s insistence on a balanced, plain diet, Henry would munch his way through half a packet of Jelly Babies before each game. He always bit the head off first.
Despite being strict on his fitness, the Frenchman loves to gorge on Chicken, peas, rice and Caribbean food.
Music has always been a big part of Henry’s pre-match plans and the player is glad that coaches and managers are more liberal with its use nowadays.
“It works differently for me because music is always on in my life – whatever I’m doing. When I’m in my house, in the car, out and about. Music takes me back to different places. If I want to go back to when I was young and see myself playing with my dad I know exactly what music to listen to. And I know what music to play to put me in the mood for a game.”
Arsenal Football Club has today honoured a trio of Club legends by unveiling three statues outside Emirates Stadium.
That of Thierry Henry have was commemorated in bronze. This was made at Arsenal’s 125th-anniversary celebrations.
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