Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry started his new career as an international coach with the Belgium national team as he took his position as new manager Roberto Martinez's assistant.
Henry had been confirmed as the new assistant coach of the Belgium international team on Friday afternoon, which came as a surprise to many. The legendary former striker has been working with Sky Sports as a pundit since he retired from football two years ago.
Earlier, the Frenchman had been working as a coach at Arsenal but had to vacate his position earlier this year after Arsene Wenger had given him an ultimatum to choose between being a pundit or being a full-time coach at the club.
The former player chose to fulfill his broadcasting commitments rather than coaching the Arsenal U-18s.
Henry has chosen to start his coaching career with Belgium as he feels that he can impact a talented Belgium squad. The Frenchman was seen talking to players like Eden Hazard and Michy Batshuayi during a training season.
Chelsea’s new £30m signing Batshuayi also hailed the impact of Arsenal's all-time leading goalscorer on Twitter.
The Blues striker tweeted a picture of himself alongside Henry with the caption, “Not sure I ever listened to my parents like this,” with the hashtag ‘#LearnFromTheBest.’
Belgium will face Spain in an international friendly on Thursday as they begin their World Cup qualification campaign against Cyprus on Tuesday. The Frenchman was seen playing a significant part in the Red Devils' training session as he gave Belgium players a number of one-one-one tutorials including Hazard and Romelu Lukaku.
Roberto Martinez was surprisingly named the Belgian national manager after coach Marc Wilmots had stepped down from the post.
Henry had spoken to Sky Sports about his role at the Belgium team, “Being able to be part of Belgium and working with Roberto Martinez, who has been in the game a very long time, and learn under him is going to be key for me”
“Let's see how far we go but yes, eventually, if you work well and you go through the right process then maybe one day, why not (I'll become a manager). You need to understand you can do it. The team has the quality to do it. We all know how hard it is to make a team be a team but that is the aim.”
