Thierry Henry
Legend Thierry Henry will coach France’s men’s soccer team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Henry, 46, will coach France’s under-21 national team for two years, according to the national federation.
France has an automatic spot in the Olympic men’s soccer field as host nation.
Men’s soccer rosters at the Olympics are for players born on or after Jan. 1, 2001, with three over-age exceptions.
Traditionally, players must be granted a release by their club teams to take part. In May 2022, French senior national team superstar Kylian Mbappé reportedly said his club, Paris Saint-Germain, will let him play at the Paris Games as an over-age exception, though player and club have since had other disagreements.
Henry, a rising star on France’s 1998 World Cup champion team, never got the chance to play in the Olympics.
France did not qualify for Olympic men’s soccer from 2000 through 2016, then returned in Tokyo, where it was knocked out in the group stage.
Henry was 19 years and 11 months old during the 1996 Atlanta Games, and would win the 1996-97 French domestic league young player of the year award. But the French roster at Atlanta 1996 included zero players younger than 21 and a half.
Instead, Henry played in the U18 European Championship in July 1996, scoring the lone goal in the final against Spain.
Since retiring in 2014, Henry was an assistant for Belgium’s men’s national team and head coach at Monaco and the Montreal Impact.
