(Paris) The former great French striker Thierry Henry was appointed coach of the Espoirs and the French Olympic team on Monday, we learned from a source close to the negotiations.
The main objective of the former Arsenal legend (46), who succeeds Sylvain Ripoll and whose choice was unanimously validated by the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation, according to the same source, will be to make the French shine at the Paris-2024 Olympics.
He could lead Kylian Mbappé there since the 2018 world champion has repeatedly proclaimed his “dream” of competing in the Olympic Games, a wish supported by the FFF. The men’s football Olympics are restricted to players aged 23 or younger, but each team can include three older players in their group.
Henry was part of a list of four candidates, also including Jocelyn Gourvennec, Julien Stéphan and Sabri Lamouchi, applicants to replace Sylvain Ripoll, sacked after the elimination of Bleuets in the quarter-finals of Euro-2023 against Ukraine (3-1).
Through his record and his aura, Henry, world (1998) and European (2000) champion with the France team, will inevitably offer very high media visibility to the Espoirs selection which, in addition to Paris-2024, will have task of obtaining his ticket for Euro-2025. The first qualifying match is scheduled for September 11 in Slovenia after a friendly on September 7 against Denmark in Nancy.
But if the former striker (51 goals in 123 blue caps) had a huge playing career, his conversion as head coach has been much less successful so far. His first experience in Monaco lasted only three and a half months, between October 2018 and January 2019. He was then named head of the Montreal Impact in MLS in November 2019, but he will eventually resign in February 2021 without convincing results.
He was also twice the assistant coach of the Belgium team (2016-2018, 2021-2022) with which he arrived in the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018.
Henry has also been very present for the past two years on television in a consulting role (Amazon Prime Video in France, CBS Sports in the United Kingdom).