Once a friend, now a foe
Thierry Henry led France to glory in 1998; now he’s helping Belgium try to beat them
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA— The first time Antoine Griezmann met Thierry Henry, he was 7. Henry had just helped France to its only World Cup title and Griezmann, who could barely reach the player’s waist on tippy-toes, eyed an autograph.
Had a video of the meeting not surfaced recently, the moment might have been forgotten to all but Griezmann. In it Griezmann and a friend chase down Henry and, after signing a soccer ball, the player turns to a pair of teammates and says “they’re our successors.”
On Tuesday, Griezmann has a chance to make Henry either a prophet or a profiteer when he leads France into the World Cup semifinals against Belgium.
If Griezmann wins, he will have proved a worthy successor indeed by taking France to a World Cup final for the first time since Henry retired from the national team eight years ago.
But if Belgium wins, it will be Henry who will profit in his role as an assistant coach to manager Roberto Martinez.
Henry, France’s all-time leading scorer, joined the Belgium staff when Martinez did two years ago.
A former English Premier League manager, Martinez wanted Henry to not only teach Belgium’s players the finer points of the game but, perhaps more importantly, he wanted him to talk about winning with a team that had been weighed down by expectations.
Belgium has played neighbouring France 73 times, but the teams haven’t met in three years — and hadn’t met in a competitive game since the 1986 World Cup.
Now they play one another with everything on the line, sending Griezmann, France’s top scorer with three goals — the same Henry scored in his first World Cup — against a Belgium offence Henry has helped to a tourney-best 14 goals.
And that’s not sitting well with everyone on the French side.
“I would be proud to show (him) that he chose the wrong camp,” Olivier Giroud, the closest active pursuer to Henry’s French record of 51 international goals, told reporters.
“I think it will be a peculiar match for him. As long as we win, that’s fine with me.”
Henry made his French debut less than a year before the 1998 World Cup, joining Didier Deschamps — now the French coach — Zinedine Zidane, Laurent Blanc and Patrick Vieira on perhaps the best French team ever. Playing at home it didn’t lose a game, blitzing Brazil 3-0 in the final.
Two years later, France won a European Championship, with Henry again leading the team with three goals.
But that would prove to be the country’s last major title. Now comes a team led by Griezmann, 27. The Atletico Madrid striker was the top scorer in the 2016 Euros, leading host France to the final (where it lost to Portugal in extra time).
In Russia, he has scored his team’s first and last goal, converting a penalty kick in the second half of its opening win over Australia, then setting up one goal and scoring another in a 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Uruguay.
Giroud suggested Henry’s real aim is to learn enough to earn a spot on the French coaching staff some day.