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Thierry Henry is heading back to the touchline as the new head coach of France’s U-21 team, the France FA announced on Monday. Henry will lead the team as they prepare for the Olympic Games in Paris next summer. He replaces Sylvain Ripoli, who was the team’s coach from 2017 until this summer. Under Ripoli, France were kicked out of this year’s U21 Euros in the quarterfinals by Ukraine and failed to advance out of the group stage at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The legendary France forward will be in charge of emerging talents like Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise and Lyon’s Bradley Barcola. Expectations are high for a gifted group at a tournament on home soil. France have only won the gold medal for men’s soccer at the Olympics once at the 1984 games in Los Angeles.
The United States, Spain, Ukraine, Morocco, the Dominican Republic, Mali and Egypt are among other teams that have qualified for the men’s soccer tournament at next summer’s Olympics, which take place from July 24 to Aug. 9.
This marks Henry’s first coaching job since his second stint as Roberto Martinez’s assistant at Belgium from 2021 to 2022, which included the team’s surprise group stage exit from the 2022 World Cup. Henry was previously the head coach of MLS side CF Montréal from 2019 to 2021 and before that was the manager at AS Monaco from 2018 to 2019.
Henry is one of France’s greatest-ever players and scored 51 goals in 123 games to sit second on the list of all-time goalscorers for the men’s national team. He won the World Cup with France in 1998 and the Euros two years later and counts a Champions League title with FC Barcelona and two Premier League trophies with Arsenal among his accolades as a player.