Thierry Henry: Former France striker named as an assistant manager of Belgium

Thierry Henry: Former France striker named as an assistant manager of Belgium

Former Arsenal, Barcelona and France striker Thierry Henry has been named as an assistant manager of Belgium.

He joins the coaching team of Roberto Martinez, who replaced Marc Wilmots at the start of August.

"Thierry is an important figure," said former Everton boss Martinez. "He will bring something different. He agreed right away to join us."

Henry, 39, tweeted: "Honoured to be assistant coach, very excited, can't wait."

Henry will work alongside Graeme Jones, who served with Martinez at Swansea, Wigan and Everton.

Martinez also named his first senior squad on Friday, ahead of their friendly against Spain on Thursday 1 September.

An interesting and potentially exciting pairing in Martinez and Henry. They both have attacking mindsets and have a very good Belgian squad at their disposal. I am looking forward to seeing Henry's impact/input on the whole coaching process and on the improvement with Belgium.

There is no argument that they have a very fine squad but don't seem to play to their potential. Maybe with the excitement and enthusiasm of Martinez and Henry might make a difference.

 

It'll be interesting to see how the PL based Belgium players react to him criticising them throughout the season on Sky Sports, then asking them to pull together and work for him during the international breaks - I'm thinking players like Benteke, Fellani and Mignolet for example.

But it'll be good for his development as a manager/coach and interesting to see how he goes.

 

Good luck to him. Hope he cuts his teeth in this role and comes back to Arsenal one day as a fully fledged coach.