Thierry Henry on his ‘big brother’ France teammate, biggest influence and the discipline that defines him
Thierry Henry described how one of his France team-mates and a little-known coach “educated” him most about football during his career, in an interview with SPORTbible.
Henry, 48, is arguably the Premier League’s greatest-ever forward, having registered 228 goals and 107 assists for Arsenal, helping the Gunners win two Premier League titles and lift two FA Cups.
During this time, he played alongside several legendary figures, including his compatriots Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira, as well as Dutch icon Dennis Bergkamp, just to name a few.
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The 48-year-old was coached by fellow Frenchman Arsène Wenger, with the former Arsenal boss revolutionising the way players prepare, recover and plan following his arrival from Japanese side Nagoya Grampus Eight in 1996.
Speaking to SPORTbible, Henry credited Wenger with being one of three coaches who had the biggest impact on his career, alongside Pep Guardiola, with whom he worked at Barcelona, as well as Joaquim Francisco Filho, who oversaw player development at the French Football Federation academy, Clairefontaine.
“You wouldn't know too much about him [Filho], but that's the guy who really developed my brain,” Henry said.
“If I hadn't met him early, when I was 14, I wouldn't have understood what Arsène was talking about. He opened my mind to be receptive to what Arsène was saying.
“Then, after that, I'm going to have to mention Pep. Obviously, having Pep, people talk about him, how intense he is and how he sees the game. He's so clever. Once again, without that guy at the beginning, Joaquim Francisco Filho, "I wouldn't have been able to understand Arsène and, even more so, Pep afterwards.
“I would say those two: one at the beginning, one towards the end of my career, and the one in the middle [influenced my career most].”
'He gave me problems'
Henry then explained how Filho made him think about the game on a deeper level, with the coach imposing rules on him during training sessions.
“He stopped me using my power, which was speed,” Henry explained. “Every time, he was like, ‘Thierry, today you can't use your speed. I don't care. If you beat your man, I don't want it to be through pace. Do it a different way.’”
Preventing Henry from using his blistering pace was just one of the parameters Filho would put on the Frenchman to improve his game, with the Brazilian coach, who would later go on to help Manchester United develop youth players after being appointed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2002, also on occasion telling a young ‘Titi’ that he couldn’t pass backwards.
“If you're a striker and you can't pass the ball back, what do you do?” Henry continued. “Suddenly, you position yourself at three-quarters to try to see if the guy comes. That's why I was always a guy who was never in the middle, because he made me think about the game differently.
“He gave me problems that I had to solve at a young age. If he hadn't done that with me and had just relied on my speed, he could have been like, ‘OK, you can go and play, and someone else is going to have to deal with your issues,’ if you know what I mean. But he didn't do that.”
'My big brother was Lilian Thuram'
While Henry largely credits Filho with his footballing education during his formative years, the 48-year-old also revealed how former France right-back Lilian Thuram educated him on how to conduct himself and be professional away from the spotlight.
Henry and Thuram, who formed part of the 1998 World Cup-winning team, first crossed paths while playing for Monaco during the mid-to-late 90s before later going on to play together for France on 79 occasions.
At the time, Thuram was a senior figure in Les Bleus’ dressing room alongside fellow experienced pros such as Zinedine Zidane and Marcel Desailly.
The pair both share Caribbean heritage, with Thuram born in Guadeloupe, an overseas region of France located in the Leeward Islands, while Henry’s father, Antoine, was also born on the archipelago.
Looking back, Henry said: “My big brother was Lilian Thuram. When I arrived at Monaco, because of our roots, we connected straight away.
“It was tough love, you know, because back in those days it was more tough love than anything. But he educated me on how to be a footballer and how to conduct myself off the pitch, and that never left me.
“Then we played together in the national team afterwards, as you know, and he was really the guy who guided me throughout my career, especially in the early days. I met him again in the national team.”
Thuram left Monaco for Parma in 1996 before going on to represent Italian giants Juventus, winning back-to-back Serie A titles in 2002 and 2003.
Meanwhile, Henry left Monaco, also for Juve, in 1999 before joining Arsenal later that the same year.
But over a decade on from first playing together in the principality, the duo were reunited at Barcelona, playing together for the La Liga giants during the 2007/08 campaign before the full-back retired at the end of that season.
'Are you doing more or not?'
Having reflected on the key influences on his career – Thuram and Filho – Henry was also keen to offer some advice to the next generation of young footballers.
When asked what advice he would give to a young player, Henry quickly emphasised the importance of putting work in away from the cameras or the watchful eyes of a coach.
He said: “It's so clichéd, but what do you do when no one can see you? What are you doing? Because when your coach is there and other people are around, you think, 'OK, I must do it.' But what do you do when people can't see you?
“Are you going to go in early and still work in the gym on holiday? Are you going to work on your craft? Are you going to do more than what you're supposed to do?
“Are you going to stop at five metres in a zero-to-five-metre sprint, or at 10 metres in a zero-to-10-metre sprint? Are you stopping at eight or nine metres and decelerating? Or are you sprinting all the way to 20 metres, even though the line was at 10?
“Are you doing more or not? All those things are clichéd, but they're very real.”
On the topic of discipline, despite retiring from football 12 years ago, you would hardly know it, with Henry in fantastic physical shape, as he demonstrated when he posted a video of himself working out on Instagram earlier this year.
Henry told SPORTbible that he relies more on staying disciplined rather than needing a reason or motivation to get in the gym.
“Discipline is key,” he said.
“Discipline is something that you do without thinking. I always say that discipline for me is over motivation. And so that's a state of mind. That's just the way I am. And I'm trying to share it, just to see if I can inspire people along the way with what I'm doing.”
Of course, Henry’s muscular physique drew attention from fans on social media, but aesthetics are far from Henry’s driving force, with the Arsenal legend saying the reason he goes to the gym, sometimes twice a day, is simply that it makes him feel good.
“It's not so much about how I look and stuff like that. It's more how I feel,” he continued.
“You know, it brings me peace. That's where, when I'm in the gym, my best thoughts come. You know, I'm relaxed. I need to do it. If I don't go in the gym in the morning, I'm different during the day. I can be agitated, a bit more edgy, if you know what I mean.
“But for me, I don't even think about it. This is why discipline is so important. You just do. You have to do it. Do you do it every day? Well, I try to. I'll be honest with you. It's rare that I miss a day.”
So, given Henry’s strict fitness regime, you'd also expect him to eat clean, and that is definitely the case.
Indeed, he previously went seven months without consuming sugar before gradually adding it back into his diet.
“I said no sugar. Now I'm a bit more back into an OK-ish diet. But I'm more of a salad, fish and chicken protein type of guy.”
When asked about the changes he’s made to his diet since hanging up his boots, he added: “Sometimes when you stop, you carry on eating the same way and you're not playing anymore. So that doesn't work. The balance ain't right because you're not spending the same amount of energy. So you have to cut it a bit and carry on working.
“I do pay attention to what I eat, if you know what I mean, because I'm not over-eating or whatever.”
Henry was speaking to SPORTbible on behalf of Clash of Clans.
Thierry Henry, Kaká and Bastian Schweinsteiger join forces to headline a football-themed campaign that brings back the video game’s most requested community feature – the Global Chat.
As Global Chat returns better than ever, the legendary trio bring their punditry history to the battlefield to show how winning has never been more in players’ hands.
Coinciding with the race for football’s biggest prize, Clash of Clans will also launch a football-themed in-game event, where players can take part in a special Clan War League
Topics: Arsenal, France, Thierry Henry, Spotlight
Luke Davies