As an Arsenal fan, it’s hard to lament the retirement of Thierry Henry. As a fan of soccer generally, of course, the prolific French striker bowing out of the game is a sad thing—surely he had many miles and many goals left in his legs, even if his best days are long behind him.
But for Arsenal fans, all tears for Terry were shed back in 2007 when he left London for Barcelona. The club’s all-time leading scorer, he was the face of the greatest era in Arsenal’s history, the face of the Invincibles team that galloped through the 2003-04 season undefeated. Rivalled by Dennis Bergkamp, perhaps, he is the greatest talent to ever wear Gunner red-and-white.
It was hard to see him go then, but there was a sense that it was time. A new generation needed to come through the club, and it was fitting to see Henry go before he really hit his decline. He went on to great things—to two la Liga titles, a Champions League victory, the Club World Cup—but he was a half-step behind his Arsenal form. In MLS with the New York Red Bulls, he lost another step, won no trophies but still displayed some flashes of brilliance. For Arsenal supporters, Henry had eased into a sweet spot: no longer so good that fans lamented selling him, still good enough in ability rather than name to justify his place in the team, and every now and then able to produce nostalgia-inducing magic.
Besides, when Arsenal fans really wanted Henry back, they got him. On loan in the winter of 2012, he came back home, as it were. And the Henry Arsenal got was the Henry they needed. He scored the winner on his debut, in the Cup against Leeds.
And he scored the winner in a crucial Premier League game away to Sunderland with his last touch of the ball as an Arsenal player.
It was the perfect epilogue to his Arsenal career, a pair of goals weighted on-field significance and off-field emotion, scored by a man at that point already cast in bronze in the forecourt of Arsenal’s stadium.
And in the glow of those goals he said the kind of things every fan wants their team’s stars to say: That he loves the club as much as they do.
“The feeling that I had when I scored was amazing,” he said after the Cup win over Leeds. “I re-joined the club as a fan. Before I wasn’t, y’know. Scoring a goal when you support a team…I will always remember tonight.”
So Gunners have had the privilege of enjoying Henry’s prime and his comeback, and though he’s played his last game, Arsenal supporters have more to look forward to. The end of Henry’s playing career signals (fingers firmly crossed) yet another return to Arsenal, this time as a coach.
It’s been heavily rumoured that the now-ex-striker will soon enough find himself back in North London, tasked with imparting Arsenal’s current and future crops of front men with some of his gift for goals, with his eye for a slicing run behind and past and through defenders, with his knack for conjuring something magical from nothing special. Teaching them how to be Henry.
It’s a tough lesson to learn, how to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest strikers in the history of the game. But for Arsenal fans, Henry’s likely turn as teacher of that lesson might just be a new way to appreciate the former star.
