Euro 2008 Player Profile: Thierry Henry

Name: Thierry Henry
Nickname: Titi
Team: France
Group: C; Italy, Netherlands, Romania
Caps (Goals): 98 (44) – as of May 23, 2008
DOB: August 17, 1977 (30 years old)
Position: Striker
Club Team: Barcelona

When we start thinking about Thierry Henry and Euro 2008, the issue on everybody’s mind is fitness.

Henry is the all-time leading goal-scorer for the France team, with 44 goals. (The photo shows him receiving the special jersey he was awarded for beating Michel Platini’s scoring record.) He was also France’s leading goal-scorer in Euro qualifying. with 6. Can he continue this in Euro 2008?

The answer is going to depend a lot on his physical form. He’s been troubled by issues like sciatica in the past two years. These kinds of injuries can be treated, but they tend not to ever go away completely, especially after players have reached a certain age. When Arsenal let him go last summer, it was rumored that the reason Arsene Wenger agreed to the trade was that analysts had studied Henry’s movement on the field and determined that he didn’t have the physical abilities that he once had.

But don’t count him out. He tends to rise to the occasion when he plays for France. Ask Brazil, who were knocked out of the 2006 World Cup by this goal.

And it could be that his lack of form early in the season for Barcelona will work out well for France. He didn’t start a lot of games this season, which may have given his body some time to recover. A positive sign for France was that when he did start playing regularly late in the season, he scored prolifically — five goals in four games.

Henry is wealthy, in high demand for endorsements, and a mercurial personality. He was once described by his own teammates, anonymously, as egotistical and big-headed. But that doesn’t tell the whole story.

So who is Thierry Henry? Obviously no one thing can capture the complexity of a person, but this video about growing up in a rough banlieue outside of Paris, offers up some interesting insights.

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For more on the France team, visit our France page.

And for more on Barcelona, visit our Barcelona page.