The French youth coach, Thierry Henry, made very harsh remarks towards his father.
After keeping it to himself for many years, Thierry Henry ended up letting go of what was in his heart. The former international has just admitted that he has long suffered from his complicated relationship with his father and the latter’s lack of recognition.
Henry regrets his father’s severity
Guest for Gary Lineker’s podcast ‘The rest is football’, the current coach of the French hopes was touchingly sincere. “I grew up with this feeling of not being good enough for my father. For the longest time, all I wanted was my father’s approval. I got it from billions of people, but not from him, he confided with regret. So I grew up trying to get something I could never have. I got compliments from everyone, every day, except him. But I did not hear the voice of the one I would have liked to hear.”
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Titi admitted that once on the roof of the world, he was congratulated by his father but it was not at that moment that he would have liked to receive the pat on the shoulders: “For a very long time, football saved me from that. I love my father, make no mistake. And, I ended up having it when I was world champion, but I would have liked to have had it at 10,11,12 years old. My father educated me with his tools ».
“I told my father what I had to say to him”
For many years, Henry had not dared to broach this subject with his father. But he ended up doing it after some deep introspection: “And during Covid, it’s the 1e time I couldn’t hide my demons. When you find yourself alone, you ask yourself lots of questions. You say to yourself what are you without football, what are you in reality? Are you a good guy? And the funny thing is, when you ask him, he tells you he didn’t do anything wrong.”
To conclude, Henry once again insisted on the importance of the mental aspect in high-level football: “During confinement, I was confined and without my family. And when you start talking to yourself all day, you can’t deny things anymore. People tell themselves that we are privileged, that we have everything we want. But, we always have problems in our life. And we recently had the example of Beka Beka, who almost threw himself off a bridge because he was not mentally well. Mental illness doesn’t choose who has the money or who doesn’t. It helped me tell him what I had to say. Did he understand? I don’t know “.
