By AFP
November 22nd 2009 @ 1:15am
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World Cup swansong will be bittersweet finale for Henry
As a rising star his budding skills helped France along the route to World Cup glory 11 years ago.
But assuming Thierry Henry makes the France squad for what would be his fourth and last World Cup finals in South Africa next summer, the attention will likely focus on his moment of sporting infamy in the playoff win over Ireland rather than his enormous talent.
Henry is caught in the eye of the storm after his handball gave William Gallas the chance to score the goal which took the 1998 champions through, leaving the Irish distraught and the former Arsenal striker sheepish as he admitted his misdemeanour.
“Of course the fairest solution would be to replay the game but it is not in my control,” the Barcelona striker said.
“Naturally I feel embarrassed at the way that we won and feel extremely sorry for the Irish who definitely deserve to be in South Africa.
“The ball bounced and it hit my hand,” said Henry, though he insisted that “I am not a cheat.”
The circumstances, while not as blatant as Diego Maradona’s slam dunk past England keeper Peter Shilton in the 1986 finals, may now sadly prove the abiding memory of a player who has worn French blue for 12 years, won the Champions League with Barca and lit up the English Premiership with Arsenal.
Henry was a precocious talent at Monaco, where he won the French league and broke into the French World Cup squad at age 20.
Juventus swiftly came calling but the man from Les Ulis in the southern Parisian suburbs saw his career run into a cul-de-sac in Turin.
After half a season a man named Arsene Wenger came calling, prescribing a remedy of a move to Arsenal and a switch of role to centre forward.
In eight years with the Gunners Henry became one of the European game’s top attractions, winning a clutch of domestic honours including two Premiership titles.
Barcelona were long smitten, though Henry continually professed his enduring love for the red half of north London.
But after the Catalan club had spiked the Gunners in the 2006 Champions League final the Frenchman decided that at 29, it was finally time for a new challenge.
And despite losing an element of his searing pace owing to a succession of niggling injuries he landed a La Liga winners medal in his first season before finally adding the main omission in his collection – a Champions League winners medal.
That Barca’s vanquished rivals were Manchester United only made the win sweeter.
With the national side Henry, despite his fitness foibles across the qualifying campaign, has been a stabilising element in the camp and is, with 51 goals in 117 games, his country’s all-time leading scorer.
But now his reputation has been tarnished, even if Wenger came to his defence on Friday.
“Football and sport are full of heroes who have cheated 10 times more than Thierry,” Wenger said.
“In my eyes, those who buy referees, who take drugs, they are the real cheats. Thierry Henry has years of honest behaviour behind him and the manner in which people are attacking him is not right,” said the beleaguered star’s former mentor.
True as that rings, the controversy will run deep and run long.
Just as it did with Maradona – who compounded his handball disgrace with a failed doping test at the 1994 World Cup.
Henry’s problem is that, despite his frank mea culpa, the comparison has already been made, not least by Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney
“Thierry Henry’s a wonderful footballer.
“But does he want to remembered like Maradona was in 1986, does he want his legacy to be this handball?”
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