Arsène Wenger has supported the call for Thierry Henry to be honoured by France with a farewell appearance in the proposed friendly against Brazil in March, saying that the gesture was the least the French Football Federation could do after their treatment of the striker in the wake of his notorious handball against the Republic of Ireland.
Wenger, who said Henry would return to Arsenal one day in some capacity, knows how deeply the player was affected by the furore that followed his involvement in France’s decisive goal in the 2010 World Cup play-off against Ireland at the Stade de France.
Henry handled the ball twice before he worked it across for William Gallas, who scored to send France to the finals in South Africa. The infringement, which Henry has insisted was in the heat of the moment and unintentional, went unseen by the match officials.
Henry released a statement saying that a replay against Ireland would be the “fairest solution”, but he felt the FFF did nothing to support him. “The day after the match, and the day after that, I felt really alone,” Henry said at the time, in November 2009. “It was only after I issued my statement that the people from the French Federation got in touch.”
It is fair to say that Henry will never be considered as the victim of the situation by Ireland fans and they took a measure of satisfaction in France’s subsequent demise in South Africa, when they suffered an embarrassing player mutiny and a group-phase exit.
Henry retired from international football in July 2010, one day after he announced that he would join New York Red Bulls from Barcelona. Henry has now left the Red Bulls, after their play-off exit against New England Revolution on Saturday and he is expected to announce his retirement. “I don’t think he wants to carry on,” Wenger said.
Henry won the World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship in 2000 and he remains France’s all-time record scorer with 51 goals from 123 appearances. But he has admitted that he decided before the 2010 World Cup that he would retire, at the age of 32, and the handball controversy, together with the souring of relations with the FFF, was an unhappy final chapter.
A campaign has started in France, led by L’Equipe, to provide Henry with a fitting tribute to his national team career. According to Noël Le Graët, the FFF president, France will face Brazil at Stade de France and L’Equipe say Henry should be allowed to make a farewell appearance in it, if only for a few minutes.
“I think that is the minimum the French Federation can do,” Wenger said. “After what happened with Ireland in the qualifiers, the situation was not handled too well by the Federation. I don’t think the feeling between Henry and the Federation was good at the time and I think they owe him that. I hope he will get that, and get the honour he deserves.”
Wenger gave Henry his professional debut at Monaco as a 17-year-old, in 1994, and he brought him to Arsenal from Juventus in 1999. In eight seasons in north London, Henry became the club’s record scorer with 228 goals, and Wenger suggested that his future return was a certainty. “He is an Arsenal man,” he said. “The best moment, certainly, of his life and of his career has been experienced here. One day he will come back here. In what role, I don’t know. That is what he has to think about – what direction he wants to give to his next life.
“He has all the qualities [to be a coach] because he is intelligent, committed, he loves the game. He just has to think: ‘Do I want to sacrifice all the rest of my life to be involved in that job?’ In this job, it’s a dedication of your life. You have to realise that there is nothing else. If you look around me, you will not find many people who have worked without interruption for 30 years in this job.”
Wenger has Steve Bould, his former defender, as one of his assistants and he said he had no problem with bringing his old players on to the staff. “You have Patrick Vieira who works at Manchester City. They are old players – one day, they will maybe be coming back.
“I will send Thierry a text message to congratulate him [on his career]. I expected him to play in the MLS final because the Red Bulls were up in the second leg against New England. That would have been the best part of his career, to finish like that and win a trophy in the States.”