Tag: Thierry Henry

Henry: Pulisic plays with more freedom on USMNT than clubs

The France legend discussed the USMNT star on CBS Sports’ “Kickin’ It”

Thierry Henry wants to see Christian Pulisic bring the kind of freedom he shows with the U.S. men’s national team to his club side.

The France legend, who at one point discussed taking the USMNT head coach job as a hypothetical, says that Pulisic has been better for his country because he’s willing to take more risks.

Speaking on the debut episode of CBS Sports’ new show “Kickin’ It,” Henry said that being too risk-averse is a disaster for an attacking player like Pulisic.

“As a creative player if you don’t try to make mistakes, you cannot succeed,” explained Henry. “I can see on the national team, [Pulisic] feels like, ‘I can make mistakes.’ When you play on the big club [team], you play the ball one time and it’s a mistake and the next time you touch it is 15 minutes after. People remember every time you touch the ball that you lost it.

“The international team, he plays with that confidence. We were all creative players, so you have to score. So if you feel like in your head you can’t lose that ball, then you might as well step out of the field and don’t play.”

Henry may have a point, at least when you contrast Pulisic’s reliably strong USMNT performances with his last season at Chelsea. In the 2022-23 campaign, Pulisic made 30 (often short) appearances for the Blues, producing just one goal and two assists in 1,012 minutes.

During the same span with the USMNT, Pulisic scored four times and added four assists in just nine total matches. That includes the 2022 World Cup, a tournament in which Pulisic either scored or set up every U.S. goal.

Fortunately for Pulisic and the USMNT, the 25-year-old may have found a path to just that sort of freedom after changing clubs. He has two goals in his first five official appearances at AC Milan (who are very safely in the “big club” category), winning the club’s Player of the Month award for August and causing an announcer to bellow “USA! USA!”

“Kickin’ It” debuts Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on  CBS Sports Golazo Network, CBSSports.com, and Paramount+.

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USMNT star Balogun says Henry influenced his decision to join Monaco

The 22-year-old striker left Arsenal to join the Ligue 1 side in a reported €40 million deal

Folarin Balogun has said France legend Thierry Henry helped convince him to choose Monaco as his new club.

Balogun completed a transfer to the Ligue 1 side on Wednesday, joining in a reported €40 million move from Arsenal.

The U.S. national team striker starred on loan with Reims last season, scoring 21 goals in Ligue 1 to send his transfer stock soaring.

Speaking at his introductory press conference on Thursday, Balogun said he had been in touch with Henry, who began his professional career with Monaco before eventually becoming a legendary figure at Arsenal.

“When I played against Monaco with Stade de Reims last season, he sent me a message to congratulate me on my goal,” Balogun said of Henry.

“He was just telling me about the the club, the history, he also said the city is very nice. That put the thought in my mind, and over time it became more clear that this is the next step for me and the step I wanted to make.

“Yesterday, after my signature, he congratulated me again, I am very happy to have his encouragement.”

Unlike Henry, Balogun did not get the chance to establish himself as a regular during his time with the Gunners. The 22-year-old played just 10 games with Arsenal, and took in a loan spell at Middlesbrough before his time at Reims.

Balogun said that despite his lack of opportunities with his boyhood club, he left Arsenal without any hard feelings.

“As a young player, I want to play,” he said. “I want to prove what I’m capable of. What’s done is done. You don’t always get the opportunity. Sometimes that opens door to new opportunities. I am happy with the way things turned out. I wish Arsenal all the best for the season. We’re looking to achieve great things at Monaco this season.”

Balogun could make his debut for Monaco on Saturday in a league match against Lens.

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Messi, Beckham and the 10 biggest signings in MLS history

Messi is atop a long list of huge names to come to MLS

Lionel Messi is coming to MLS, and is instantly the league’s biggest-ever signing.

MLS history is littered with big global names, icons at the world’s biggest clubs, as well as lower-profile signings that changed the landscape of the league in ways over the years and even decades to follow their arrival.

Still, not even David Beckham — who is part-owner of Inter Miami, the club that Messi will be suiting up for in the near future — can match the global phenomenon that is Messi. The Argentina superstar, fresh off winning the 2022 World Cup, will transform the entire league, with commissioner Don Garber going so far as to say Messi could be the biggest athlete in U.S. sporting history. The stakes are that high.

It’s not like Messi is the first huge signing for MLS, though. Here are the top 10 additions to the league in its 28-year history.

Henry turns down approach to be France women’s coach

France is looking at some big names for their women’s national team job

Credit France for thinking big when it comes to replacing Corinne Diacre.

According to Lyon owner and French federation board member Jean-Michel Aulas, he approached Thierry Henry to lead the women’s national team at this summer’s World Cup.

Board members Aulas, Marc Keller, Aline Riera and Laura Georges have been tasked by the French federation to sound out potential candidates to replace Diacre, who was fired last week after a player revolt.

While that group has sought out numerous candidates, the Arsenal legend has taken himself out of the running.

In an interview with Le Figaro, Aulas said Henry “considered it,” but ultimately opted to remove himself from the running.

“I personally asked him the question, but the response was not positive,” said Aulas. “He was obviously very flattered that he was asked. We did it because we were told he might be interested. But it will not be Thierry Henry. I think he is moving on to other projects.”

Henry was most recently an assistant coach on Roberto Martínez’s Belgium staff, and has a prominent role as a studio pundit for CBS’s Champions League coverage. Henry’s experience as a head coach has been limited to a rocky spell at Monaco (where he lasted less than four months) and one season as the head coach of what was then known as the Montréal Impact. Henry stepped down from the MLS side in February 2021, citing a desire to be able to see his children in London, something he couldn’t do at the time due to Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

On Thursday, ESPN reported that Henry has his eyes set on the other side of the Atlantic, with the 45-year-old apparently hoping to land the U.S. men’s national team job.

Prominent names still in the mix

The French federation hardly had all of its eggs in the Henry basket. Le Figaro‘s report says that Jocelyn Gourvennec, the former manager of the men’s teams at Guingamp, Bordeaux, and Lille, has spoken to the board about his vision for the role.

Diacre’s former assistant Eric Blahic, Lyon boss Sonia Bompastor, Paris Saint-Germain manager Gérard Prêcheur, Saudi Arabia men’s head coach Hervé Renard, and Paris FC’s Sandrine Soubeyrand — whose 198 caps make her a record holder for France — have all been in consideration as well.

Reports hold that France would like to hire a new coach as soon as possible, which is not a massive surprise given how close the World Cup is. Les Bleues have just two pre-World Cup friendlies scheduled, both of which take place in mere weeks. They host Colombia on April 6, and Canada on April 11.

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Thierry Henry sort of puts himself out there for the USMNT coaching job

The former Arsenal and France forward would be an intriguing candidate

Could Thierry Henry be the next U.S. men’s national team head coach? He at least isn’t saying no to the possibility.

The USMNT is without a coach after Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired at the end of 2022. As U.S. Soccer also searches for a sporting director, federation president Cindy Parlow Cone has said to not expect a new USMNT coach until the end of summer.

Henry is an intriguing candidate to take over the USMNT. He was, of course, one of the greatest players of his generation, with his playing career including a stop in MLS with the New York Red Bulls.

After his retirement, Henry has served as head coach of Monaco and CF Montréal, while also taking in two separate stints as Roberto Martinez’s assistant with the Belgium national team.

Though his head coaching stints have been brief, Henry brings a unique combination of high-level playing success, coaching experience at the club and international level, and familiarity with American soccer.

Henry currently serves as a pundit for CBS Sports, where he was asked by host Kate Abdo on Wednesday if he would be interested in the USMNT job.

“Would I put my name in the hat? First and foremost, that’s a tricky one to talk about,” Henry said. “Roberto Martinez went to coach Portugal and I’m not going with him. Being a number two is no longer something I would like to do. Massive respect for the boss, he gave me an opportunity when no one else did. I’d like to have a crack [at management] again.”

“Do I know the [American] players? Yeah, I know the players. Do I know the league? Yeah, I know the league. It’s a different ballgame to talk about it now like that, but would I want to be a manager at any level? Yes, of course, that’s something I would want to do. But to go back to the U.S. national team and the U.S. in general, what’s the plan? What’s the philosophy? What do you want to be?

“And it’s not because you’re going to host the [World Cup] that you’re going to go far automatically. We’ve seen that it’s not easy to do that. We’ve seen some big teams [struggle] at home.”

The question for any candidate now is whether they will still be available in several months, when U.S. Soccer will begin the process of hiring. Henry, at least, is currently employed at a position from which it would not be hard to leave should the right offer come along.

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Olivier Giroud equals Thierry Henry’s goal record as France thumps Australia at World Cup

Based on how France played, Giroud’s got a serious Golden Boot chance

France steamrolled Australia at the World Cup on Tuesday, and Olivier Giroud used the occasion to make some history.

Giroud tied Thierry Henry’s record goal total for France’s men’s team, scoring his 50th and 51st goals as part of a 4-1 rout that pushed the defending World Cup champions atop Group D. The goals marked Giroud’s first at a World Cup since 2014, after France famously won the 2018 tournament without a single goal from a true striker.

Giroud wasn’t slated to start many games for France in Qatar, but a pre-tournament injury for Karim Benzema thrust the veteran back into the limelight. Fortunately for France fans, it looks like Giroud is ready for the occasion.

It wasn’t completely smooth sailing at first for Les Bleus. Australia took a 1-0 lead in the 9th minute after Craig Goodwin roofed Mathew Leckie’s low cross. The sequence leading to the goal came with more bad news for Didier Deschamps’ side, as Lucas Hernandez left the match with a serious-looking knee injury suffered while trying to track Leckie down.

For a few nervy minutes, it looked like Australia could repeat the day’s other upset, which saw Saudi Arabia knock off Argentina. France, after all, finished last in their group in 2002, just four years after winning their first-ever World Cup. Four of the last five defending champions have gone out in the group stage, including each of the last three.

France is apparently not interested in keeping that trend going. Adrien Rabiot got them level in the 27th minute, before Giroud scored his 50th international goal just five minutes later.

Few of them could be easier, after Rabiot forced a turnover that rolled to Kylian Mbappé. The PSG star backheeled the ball into Rabiot’s path, and with the Socceroos’ defense collapsing on the Juventus man, he shuttled the ball across to a wide-open Giroud to deposit past goalkeeper Mathew Ryan.

Australia had their chances to get level, but eventually their fatigue started to open up gaps, and France ruthlessly took advantage. Mbappé smashed an easy chance over the bar just before halftime, but he’d get his goal midway through the second half.

Looking truly imperious, Mbappé then went back to setting others up, sprinting past the Australian defense on the left flank. The resulting goal was classic Giroud: Mbappé’s curling cross was right where the AC Milan No. 9 needed it, and Giroud headed down past Ryan with authority.

Based on this display, it would be a shock if we’re not back here in a few days talking about how Giroud is now alone atop France’s all-time goalscoring chart. Best of luck to Denmark and Tunisia, who are the next teams faced with having to figure out how to slow this loaded French side down.

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