On 9 December 2011, on the occasion of Arsenal's 125th anniversary, a new bronze statue was unveiled outside the Emirates Stadium, owned by Arsenal fans as the team's greatest player in 125 years, hailed by fans as the eternal "King of Guns", named Thierry Henry.
Born on 17 August 1977 in the suburb of Les ulis in Paris, France, Henry showed extraordinary talent for football from an early age, and at the age of 7, he was recruited to a local football club, the Les Ulisco team, but At that time, Henry was not yet fond of football, and he needed his father to supervise him to participate in training. At the age of 13, Henry scored 6 goals in a game to help the team win 6-0, and the Monaco scout who watched the game on the sidelines was suddenly conquered by Henry's talent and immediately invited Henry to join monaco.
Before Henry joined Monaco, Henry was also sent by Monaco to the most famous youth football base in France, Klefontaine, to attend training courses. After completing the training course, the 16-year-old Henry came to the Monaco youth team and met the most important mentor of his life, the then Monaco coach Alsena Wenger, who was very appreciative of Henry in his youth.
At the age of 17, Wenger promoted Henry from the youth team, giving him his first appearance in Ligue 1. Subsequently, under the careful guidance of Wenger, Henry continued to improve, but also gradually revealed his talent on the pitch, in 1997, Henry was elected the best young player in France, in the 1997/1998 season, Henry's performance went further, he as the main force of the team helped the team break into the Champions League final four, and personally scored 7 goals, with this season's talent performance, Henry successfully attracted the attention of the french coach Jacquet, October 11, 1997, In the friendly match between France and South Africa, Henry was given his first chance to play for the national team, after which he successfully won the opportunity to play with France in the 1998 World Cup.
In the 1998 World Cup, only 21-year-old Henry became the main center of the French team, and performed well, scoring 3 goals for the French team in the first two games, and finally helping the French team to win the World Cup with a 3-0 victory over Brazil in the final. With his stunning performances in the Champions League and world cup, Henry managed to attract the attention of Italian giants Juventus, and finally in January 1999, Henry joined Juventus for 10.5 million pounds.
At first, Henry joining Juventus seemed like a perfect choice, because the most successful player in French football at that time, Platini, reached his peak in Juventus, and the big brother Zidane also achieved success at Juventus, Henry's joining seemed to be pursuing the success of the predecessors in football, and at that time, Juventus also had Zidane and Deschamps, two French compatriots, who were also Henry's big brothers, who could also give Henry a lot of advice to help Henry grow.
However, Juventus' experience ended up being the least memorable memory of Henry's career, where he simply could not adapt. At that time, the Italian arena had the best defense in the world, and in the face of high-intensity and dense defense, it was difficult for Henry to play as freely as he did in Monaco; in addition, Henry could not play pure wingers like in Monaco, where the manager required him not only to attack, but also to participate in defense. In the end, Henry left in a hurry after only half a season with Juventus, leaving only a record of 3 goals in 16 games, and even later, many people did not know that Henry had played for Juventus.
In August 1999, henry joined Arsenal from Juventus for a transfer fee of $16.5 million. Perhaps not yet awoken from Juventus' lost experience, Henry's start at Arsenal did not go well. In the first eight games he played for the team, Henry was unable to score until the first goal of his Arsenal career against Southampton, and in the first 17 games for Arsenal, Henry scored only two goals. However, in the following matches, Henry gradually entered the form and showed a good level, and in the first season, Henry scored 26 goals in 48 games for Arsenal, helping the team to a runner-up in the league. In his second season, Henry maintained a steady play, scoring 22 goals for Arsenal in 53 games, and in arsenal's home game against Manchester United this season, Henry also scored a classic goal. Henry made a slight adjustment after taking the ball on his back in the front of the penalty area, and then a wonderful half-turn volley hit the ball, scoring the only goal of the game, which is also one of the most classic goals in the history of the Premier League. It is a pity that in this season's league title competition, Arsenal once again ranked second in the league, passing by the champions.
In Arsenal's third season, Henry had an explosion. Henry scored a total of 32 goals for Arsenal, setting a new career record for goals and crowning him premier League top scorer for the first time with 24 goals. And during this season, Henry repeatedly gave or wonderful or key performances. In the Champions League away match against Roma, Henry staged a wonderful hat-trick to help the team win Roma 3-1 away from home, this hat-trick is also the most classic of all 9 hat tricks of Henry's Arsenal career, and in the key league match with Manchester United, Henry scored a key counter-score goal, helping the team to achieve the final victory, and also laid the foundation for Arsenal's victory this season. In the end, under Henry's excellent performance, Arsenal also beat Liverpool to become the final league champion with a seven-point advantage, which was also the first league title for Henry to join Arsenal, and this season they also defeated Chelsea 2-0 in the FINAL OF THE FA Cup, achieving the "double champion" honor of the season.
In his fourth season at Arsenal, Henry reached the pinnacle of his career, delivering a jaw-dropping "double 20" stat with 32 goals and 23 assists for Arsenal. And, this season, he scored the most classic goal of his career in the first London derby with Tottenham. Just 13 minutes into the game, Henry took the ball inside his penalty area and ran all the way through more than 70 yards, breaking through the defense of Several Spurs players such as Matthew Estherington, Ledley King and Stephen Carr with a smooth dribble, and finally faced goalkeeper Casey Kelly.'s shot. As classic as this goal is Henry's domineering kneeling and celebrating action after the goal, which has long become the deepest memory of Henry in the minds of fans. Even after losing to Van Nistelrooy in the league shooters' contest this season and Arsenal losing to Manchester United in the league title race, Henry won the Premier League Player of the Year award for his dreamy personal performances and finished second in both the World Footballer of the Year and the European Ballon d'Or in 2003.
In Arsenal's fifth season, Henry remained invincible, scoring 39 goals in all competitions for Arsenal, setting a new single-season scoring record and crowning him as the Premier League's top scorer and the European Golden Boot with 24 league goals. Under Henry's leadership, Arsenal won this season's Premier League title with a record of 38 unbeaten league games, a record that no team in England's major homegrown league has been able to achieve for more than a century. With this season's crazy performance, Henry won all the premier league best individual awards, but unfortunately, Henry once again finished second in the "World Footballer of the Year" selection. Because Henry has had crazy performances for two consecutive years but has passed by the "World Footballer of the Year", and finally did not win this award for his lifetime, fans all over the world are upset with Henry at his peak, saying that the world owes Henry a "World Footballer of the Year" trophy.
Since then, Henry has continued to maintain his peak form, in the sixth season, Henry scored 31 goals for Arsenal, defending the premier league top scorer and the European Golden Boot Award, becoming the only player in world football at that time to be able to dominate the Golden Boot twice, and this season, Henry also scored a subtle heel goal in the league against Charlton at home, which was amazing; in the seventh season, Henry scored 27 goals in the league and won the premier league top scorer again. He also led Arsenal to the Champions League final of this season, and this season, his single ride at the Bernabeu was even more impressive; in Arsenal's eighth season, although Henry was plagued by injuries, he still contributed 17 games in the league with 10 goals and 6 assists.
In the summer of 2007, Henry, who was over 30 years old, chose to leave Arsenal and join Barcelona in order to realize his Champions League dream. At this point, his Arsenal goal record also stopped at 174 league goals and 42 European goals, of which 174 league goals set a record for arsenal teams' all-time individual league goals.
After joining Barcelona, Henry is no longer as beautiful as he was in Arsenal, he is no longer the number one core of the team, he is no longer as numb as he scored goals at Arsenal, but Henry still plays an important role in the team and still has a good performance.
In the first season of the team, Henry scored 19 goals and 11 assists in 47 appearances for Barcelona, but this season was not good for Henry, because this season Barcelona was in turmoil, the team's performance was very unsatisfactory, they only ranked third in the league, and to Henry's disappointment, they lost to Manchester United in the Champions League semi-finals.
However, in the second season, Henry finally realized his dream, he not only followed Barcelona to win the Champions League, but also won all the championships for the first time in history, achieving the "six champions" feat. Henry's performance this season is also very good, and he is an indispensable offensive core in the team. His "trident" with Eto'o and Messi has been invincible, scoring more than 100 goals for Barca, including Henry scoring 26 goals in 43 appearances for Barca and 19 goals and 8 assists in 29 appearances in the league.
In his third season at Barcelona, Guardiola promoted Pedro to take Henry's place, and at this time, with the realization of the Champions League, Henry also became desperate at Barca, so after the end of the season, Henry left Barca to join the New York Red Bulls in the Professional League. In New York, although Henry is at the end of his career, he still shows a good state, he was also elected the best player in the 2013 Major League Baseball, during which Henry also briefly returned to Arsenal on loan, and on December 16, 2014, after ending the entire season with The Red Bull In New York, Henry announced his retirement and bid farewell to the green field.
Henry's national team career is perfect, because he has won the World Cup, The European Cup, the Confederations Cup all major national team championship titles, but Henry's national team career has regrets, because behind these honors, he is more of a supporting role, even a supporting role, in the club's unlimited scenery Henry, but never been a real protagonist.
In the 1998 World Cup, Henry won the World Cup for the first time with the French team, but behind the aura, people only remember Zidane, as well as Blanco, Deschamps, Desailly, Thuram, Batez and other core players, few people will be credited to Henry, who was still a fledgling at that time.
At Euro 2000, Henry, as the main centre-forward of the French team, performed well and helped france win the final championship, but this time, people still put more credit on Zidane, and even Trezeguet, who scored the golden goal in the final, and Virtod, who scored the equalizer for france in the final moments of the final, were more beautiful than Henry.
In the 2002 World Cup, henry was in the ascendant, and it happened that the core of the squad Zidane was injured again, which was Henry's best chance to prove himself. However, Henry was greatly disappointed, and the only memory he left for fans in this World Cup was that he was sent off with a red card in the second match against Uruguay in the group stage, and finally France was eclipsed after the end of the group stage, and it was precisely because of this game that the French team gave the impression that Zidane was a national team.
The 2003 Confederations Cup, the only highlight of Henry's national team, this time he led France to the final title, especially in the final, where Henry scored the golden ball in extra time to help France beat Cameroon. With his outstanding performances, Henry was also voted the best player of the tournament.
2004 European Championship, Henry played well, but the Overall Performance of the French team was not good, they lost to Greece in the quarterfinals, missed the final four; in the 2006 World Cup, Henry played well, in the group stage and togo's life and death contest, Henry scored a key opening goal, helped France win 2-0 against the opponent, successfully broke through from the group stage, in the quarterfinals with Brazil, Henry scored the only goal of the game, helping France to eliminate the championship-winning heat Brazil, but this time the World Cup, The core of the French team is still Zidane, and the best performer is also Zidane.
In the 2008 European Championship, Zidane withdrew from the French team, Henry singled out the beam, which was originally Henry's best and last chance to prove himself, unfortunately, Henry missed it again, without Zidane's French team like sleepwalking, Henry could not find his best form, the French team scored only one goal in three group games, and also experienced a 1-4 defeat to the Netherlands and a 0-2 defeat to Italy.
In the 2010 World Cup, Henry was no longer at his peak, and at this time he was only a reserve player for the team. But as the big brother of the team, Henry still had high hopes, but Henry once again disappointed everyone, he did not do the duty of big brother. In South Africa, the French team had no intention of fighting, privately engaged in infighting, and finally the group stage was eliminated.