Thierry Henry announced his retirement on Tuesday after a glittering career with Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona and New York Red Bulls. The Frenchman boasts an incredible back-catalogue of magic moments; Sport360 asked fans, journalists and a former team-mate to share their memories.
– GALLERY: Thierry Henry's career in pictures
IGOR MLADENOVIC, Paris-based French football correspondent
At the end of an outstanding season when he scored 32 goals and provided 23 assists for Arsenal, Henry joined the French national team to take part in the Confederations Cup. The national team was deprived of two star players in Zinedine Zidane and Patrick Vieira and was facing a popularity crisis domestically after a poor performance at World Cup 2002. However Henry sustained his incredible form into the tournament and carried the team on his shoulders all the way to the final.
Named Man of the Match by FIFA in three of the country's five matches, he scored in the semi-final against Turkey and pointed his finger at the sky, in a poignant tribute to Marc-Vivien Foé, the Cameroon midfielder who had collapsed to his death three days earlier during Cameroon's goalless draw against the United States. Henry had scored in four of his team's five matches. This was one of the greatest strikers of our time at his peak, but his personal achievements were overshadowed by a tragedy.
ROHIN THAMPI, UAE Arsenal Supporters’ Club
Who can forget that goal against Tottenham in 2002? Any goal in a North London derby is important but this one was so, so special. He picked up the ball in the Arsenal half and then accelerated the length of the Highbury pitch, leaving Spurs players in his wake, before calmly slotting it with his left foot. Then, having already run the length of the pitch, he did it again before sliding on his knees and celebrating in front of the fans. It was vintage Henry and I had that image of his celebration as my wallpaper for a very long time. He gave the team such confidence and you felt every time he had the ball in an opponents’ half Arsenal would score ; hopefully he comes back to Arsenal in some capacity.
LOUIS SAHA, former Manchester United striker and France team-mate
"Titi was elegance made flesh. He gave so much to French football that I am disappointed he did not receive much back. He had a way to protect himself that journalists or the public did not always understand, or try to understand. It is a shame because looking at his career he deserves a lot more than one last cap for his jubilee. I see him as an ambassador for French football. He embodies what was best alongside Zidane and Platini".
JONATHAN MOLYNEUX-CARTER, Senior Editor ESPN FC
Where to start? The man who would come to define the art of striking in the Premier League struggled in his first few games to get on the scoresheet, but when his first goal came it was a thing of beauty. Holding the ball up against Southampton, spinning, and unleashing a vicious curling shot into the corner of the net, Arsenal fans knew they had someone special. He would score many more, but a goal to defeat rivals Manchester United – a flick, spin and volley over the hapless Fabian Barthez – sent me into raptures. Quite simply the best finisher that the club has ever seen.
NICK AMES, Journalist and formerly of Arsenal Media
Perhaps the poignancy of the event was heightened by the glum context. Arsenal were fifth in the Premier League when Thierry Henry made his return in 2012, still scrambling back after an appalling start to the year. There had been little verve on show for most of the season so Henry's return and oh-so-textbook goal against Leeds were a thrilling and thought-provoking glimpse of the past inside the present.
The roar when he came on was spine-tingling enough, waking up a dull game that mirrored the previous five months' frustration. The release of joy, of memories and sheer celebration, that accompanied his 78th-minute goal travelled as far south as King's Cross. It was not Henry's best goal for Arsenal, or the most important, but it contained, in its meaning, more than any other. The player himself admitted afterwards that this, after a career of so much pressure and continual bar-raising, was a goal that he could at last enjoy; for Arsenal fans, who had seen their hero depart without a particularly satisfactory farewell, this goal was – in a strange but delightful way – the perfect sign-off.
DIDAC PEYRET, Barcelona Editor at Spanish newspaper Sport
Henry’s best moment and perfomance was at the Bernabéu in 2009. Henry was brilliant – with some flashes of his level for Arsenal ; he scored two goals and Barcelona won 6-2. There was real swagger to his game and he found the best scenario to shine, with lots of space. Playing in Barcelona was tough for him, he had to reinvent his game as a winger and was just one more piece in Barcelona's ecosystem, no longer the sole star. Pep Guardiola used to explain that, when he was the coach, he detected that there was something going wrong with Henry so they had a meeting and talked about everything but football, with Henry then improving his game a lot.
MICHAEL CHALHOUB, Sport360 CEO
The one thing most people remember when they think of Henry isn't one goal he scored but the same goal he scored, over and again. That classic run from the left, pace personified, and the same wide-angled shot to the goalkeeper's far side. He repeatedly scored the goal, against teams at home and abroad. That perfect blend of explosive speed and technical proficiency which resulted in his foot opening at precisely the right angle, to send the ball flying beyond the goalkeeper's grasp. Opponents knew it was coming but were powerless to stop it.
As a member of the 'Invincibles', he was part of a golden era for Arsenal. Supporters will fondly remember him alongside Dennis Begkamp, Robert Pires and Freddie Ljungberg – tearing Premier League defences apart. In a career punctuated by trophies, the main omission has to be the Ballon d'Or – he is surely one of the greatest to have missed out on football's greatest individual accolade.
