Thierry Henry/import

Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French footballer who plays for Spanish La Liga club Barcelona and the French national team as a striker.

Henry was born in the tough neighbourhood of Les Ulis, Essonne—a suburb of Paris—where he played for an array of local sides as a youngster and showed great promise as a goal-scorer. He was spotted by AS Monaco in 1990 and signed instantly, making his professional debut in 1994. Good form led to an international call-up in 1998, after which he signed for the Serie A defending champions Juventus. He had a disappointing season playing on the wing, before joining Arsenal for £10.5 million in 1999.

It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world-class footballer. Despite initially struggling in the Premiership, he emerged as Arsenal's top goal-scorer for almost every season of his tenure there. Under long-time mentor and coach Arsène Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal's all-time leading scorer with 226 goals in all competitions. The Frenchman won two league titles and three FA Cups with the Gunners; he was twice nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year, was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year twice, and the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year three times. Henry spent his final two seasons with Arsenal as club captain, leading them to the UEFA Champions League final in 2006. In June 2007, after eight years with Arsenal, he transferred to Barcelona for a fee of €24 million. His first honours with the Catalan club came in 2008–09 when they won the league, cup and Champions League treble.

Henry has enjoyed similar success with the French national squad, having won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. In October 2007, he surpassed Michel Platini's record to become France's top goal-scorer of all time. Off the pitch, as a result of his own experience, Henry is an active spokesperson against racism in football. His footballing style and personality have ensured that he is one of the most commercially marketable footballers in the world; he has been featured in advertisements for Nike, Reebok, Renault, Pepsi and Gillette.

Youth Stage
Being brought up in the tough neighborhoods of Les Ulis, a heavily urbanized suburb of Paris, in a family of Antillean immigrants that didn't have it easy, Thierry Henry was only 6 when Claude Chezelle recruited him at the local youth team, CO Les Ulis.

He spent five years at the club and at age 11, he played his first game here, before joining US Palaiseau in 1989, where he would meet Coach Jean-Marie Panza, which Henry refers to as his mentor even today. When Panza moved to Vity-Chatillon in 1990, the 13 year old Henry followed his mentor to the team, where he spent 2 years.

In his last year at Vity-Chatillon Thierry Henry had already made a name for himself in the youth team circles and AS Monaco sent out a scout to evaluate him at a game.

In 1990, Monaco sent scout Arnold Catalano to watch Henry in a match. Henry scored all six goals as his side won 6–0. Catalano asked him to join Monaco without even attending a trial first, although he had to spend some time at the elite academy of Clairefontaine, where he would learn the basics of top football. In 1992 he was finally allowed in the AS Monaco youth team and 3 years later he would be taken in the senior squad.

AS Monaco (1992–1999)
Being granted a first team place after just one season spent with the senior team, Thierry Henry grabbed the chance and put his skills to good use, scoring several decisive goals that would help Monaco win the Ligue 1 title in the 1996-1997 season.

His great form in the league as well as for the U-20 French National team draw the eyes of France's senior National team's coach, Aime Jacquet who took the young player to the 1998 World Cup, risking his own position by allowing a relatively unknown striker to bear the pressure of a World Cup.

Still, Thierry Henry didn't disappoint as he ended the tournament as France's top scorer with 3 goals, but unfortunately wasn't given the chance to play in the final, where France beat Brazil 3 – 0.

Juventus Juventus (1999)
At Juventus, facing the rough defensive discipline of Italian clubs and changing his position on the pitch to that of a winger, Henry didn't have the best of seasons. In fact, in 16 appearances for Juventus he barely scored 3 goals and had a few assists and fans were starting to doubt the young Frenchman's skills.

Luckily for him, he was quick to change the environment, as Arsenal's French coach, Arsene Wenger (who was Henry's coach at Monaco) bought him for the same sum Juventus did, namely 17 million dollars.

It's here that the true rise to stardom started for Thierry Henry, Arsenal being a top team in the English league and will soon become a heavy team in the European cups.

Arsenal (1999–2007)
The move to Arsenal also coincided with him getting his old position as a striker back and taking advantage, he became what the press would soon call a Thierry Henry scoring machine, with an impressive tally of 26 goals in his first season.

That season will prove to be Henry's best so far, winning the European Championship that summer with France (being one of the decisive members now, unlike the substitute status he shared in the 1998 World Cup) and gaining a lot of support at Arsenal.

His next season saw him taking Arsenal to winning a league-cup double, with the Frenchman becoming top goalscorer, piercing the net 32 times in all competitions.

But the Thierry Henry scoring machine still hadn't clenched his thirst for goals, as his next season would bring a new record goal tally, of 42 goals in all competitions, winning the FA Cup, although losing the league title.

His second league trophy was soon to come though, as the 2003-2004 season saw an impressive London team lead by Thierry Henry, Arsenal becoming the first team in more than a century to go through all the domestic matches unbeaten.

Becoming Arsenal's captain in 2005, Thiery Henry's goals lead the Gunners to a solid 2005-2006 season, which although didn't bring any silverware, brought a lot of records for the Frenchman.

That season, he managed to become Arsenal's top goalscorer of all time, breaking Ian Wright's 185 goals record, best club league goal record, breaking Cliff Bastin's league goal tally of 151 and also became the first player to score over 100 goals on Highbury, an unprecedented record.

Although losing another league title the following year, Thierry Henry's Arsenal focused all their efforts to the UEFA Champions League, where they reached the final, eventually losing 1 – 2 to a rampant FC Barcelona.

On June 25, 2007 Henry signed a 4 year deal with FC Barcelona and io earn a "small amount" of $9.3 million per season. Barcelona paid Arsenal $22 million for the Frenchman's services.