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While some athletes are unheard of again
once they retire, the case of former Arsenal striker and French
national, Thierry Henry — who retired from football in December 2014 —
is not like that.
Announcing his retirement, he had said,
“The decision was not too hard, to be honest. It is hard to leave the
game you love and everything you used to do on a daily basis. But I am
pleased with what I’ve done and I’ve got no regrets. Things happen for a
reason. It’s hard and not hard.
“I love the game and I still think I can
give a lot to the game. I’m retiring and I’m not yet involved with any
team. In the meantime, I can give back to the game on TV and make people
understand some stuff they maybe don’t already. The job of an analyst
is to make people understand in a simple way what the game means. It
will be our job to make sure we bring the game closer to people.”
Henry was a highly successful player
during his time in the world of football, and even now that he’s out of
the field, he has shown no sign of slowing down.
Few days after his retirement, the Frenchman joined Sky Sports
as a football expert and ambassador on a six-year deal that was
reportedly worth £24m (N6.96bn), making him the highest-paid pundit on
television.
By implication, he will be paid £4m (N1.16bn) per year and over £300,000 (N97m) per month.
His £4m-a-year deal is said to dwarf
that of a colleague, Gary Neville, a former Manchester United player,
who is believed to be paid £1.2m (N348m) annually or £100,000 (N29m)
monthly.
Interestingly, Sky Sports was not the only media house that was interested in signing Henry, but also the BBC.
Fortunately for him, his deal with Sky Sports does not stop him from also working with the BBC, according to the agreement signed.
“The terms of Henry’s mega-deal still allow him to work for the BBC at major tournaments,” Daily Telegraph UK reported.
The report added, “He will join former
Manchester United defender, Gary Neville, and ex-Liverpool star, Jamie
Carragher, as an expert analyser and co-commentator, but will also act
as a Sky ambassador and will lead their biggest advertising and
marketing campaigns.”
Successful striker
Thierry Daniel Henry, born on August 17,
1977, is a retired French professional footballer who played as a
forward. He was raised in Les Ulis, Essonne, a suburb of Paris, France.
He played for Monaco, Juventus (Italy),
Barcelona (Spain), New York Red Bulls (the United States) and spent
eight years at Arsenal (London), where he is the club’s all-time record
goalscorer. At the international level, he represented France and is his
country’s record goalscorer.
Up till now, Henry is Arsenal’s all-time
record scorer with 228 goals and also holds the record for scoring the
most goals for the French national team after netting 51 goals for his
country.
After joining Arsenal from Juventus in
1999, he made a total of 376 appearances for the North London club and
won two Premier League titles, spearheading the 2003/04 Invincibles
team, and three FA Cups.
Henry’s achievements at Arsenal were honoured in 2011, when the club unveiled a statue of him outside the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal longtime manager, Arsene Wenger,
paid tribute to Henry at the ceremony to mark the statue by saying, “He
is a player who had everything you dream of as a manager — physical
potential, a technical level, super intelligence and, what people also
forget for many top-level athletes, he was dedicated to his job, with a
very serious life. He is simply a model professional who won everything
you can in our world. Thierry, you were really special.”
Henry moved to Barcelona from Arsenal in
2007 and won two La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey and the 2008/09
Champions League with the Spanish club.
With France, he lifted the 1998 World Cup and won the European Championships two years later.
At the New York Red Bulls, which he
joined in 2010, Henry made 135 appearances and scored 52 goals,
returning briefly to Arsenal in the 2011/12 season during the MLS break.
Off the pitch, Henry has been an active campaigner against racism in football – partially due to his own experiences.
Style of play
One of the reasons cited for Henry’s impressive play is his ability to calmly score from one-on-ones.
According to his father, Antoine, Henry picked up his precision shooting from watching his idol, Marco van Basten.
He was also influenced by Romário,
Ronaldo and George Weah, a breed of strikers in the 1990s who also
operated outside the penalty area before running with the ball towards
goal.
At his physical peak from the late 1990s
to the mid 2000s, Henry’s ability to dribble past opponents with
exceptional pace, skill and composure, meant that he could get in behind
defenders regularly enough to score.
In 2004, former Arsenal striker, Alan
Smith, commented on Henry, “I have to say I haven’t seen a player like
him. He’s an athlete with great technical ability and a tremendous
desire to be the best.”
Henry also emerged consistently as one
of Europe’s most prolific strikers. In set pieces, he was the
first-choice penalty and free kick taker for Arsenal, having scored
regularly from those positions.
Net worth and lifestyle
For a hardworking man like Henry, it is not surprising that he lives the kind of lifestyle he wants.
Sometime in July 2015, he was seen with
his partner, Andrea Rajacic, at the Wimbledon to watch a semi-final game
between Novac Djokovic and Richard Gasquet, which the former won.
Worth about $65m (N13bn), Henry owns an amazing penthouse in a New York building.
He shelled out an initial $9m (N1.8bn)
for the top two floors of the beautiful building in hip Soho and then
also paid $5.85m (N1.17bn) for the apartment in the floor below his
penthouse.
The stunning 5,607 square feet apartment
— along with another 4,500 square feet of outdoor space, including a
bamboo garden — is in the Nolita area which has stars — Alicia Keys,
Lenny Kravitz, Courtney Love and Nicole Kidman — as former residents.
City documents show Henry’s penthouse
has 17ft floor-to-ceiling windows, an open chef’s kitchen, a media room
with wet bar, 72” built-in flat screen with surround sound and stereo.
The master bedroom has two separate his
and hers dressing rooms with their own ‘rain’ showers — perfect for the
ex-sportsman and his Bosnian model partner, Rajacic.
Henry drives some of the world’s most
luxurious supercars, including a Mercedes Benz SLK 350, a Bentley
Continental coupe and an Aston Martin Vanquish.
Credit: Punch
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