Preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the France Espoirs team brings back bad memories for Thierry Henry, the Bleuets coach.
Four months before the Olympic Games, it is difficult to say which three players over 23 will Thierry Henry be able to select for Paris 2024. If the coach of the France Espoirs team would dream of Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud , he knows that the choice will not be his. “The Olympics are not FIFA dates, it’s incomprehensible. So, we try to come and talk (with the clubs), to say “please”.”he confides to Parisian.
“I don’t think it will come from French clubs this time, well I hope so. But foreign clubs will tell me that they like our country, that it's nice, but that if the player gets injured, what do they do? », he adds. A justified fear. Real Madrid have indeed already informed the French Football Federation that it does not intend to release its internationals for this competition. Which could pose a problem for the current star striker of PSG…
Thierry Henry marked for life
The Bleuets coach's history with the Olympics could therefore once again be thwarted, he who, in November 1999, had failed to qualify for those in Sydney. Having just been crowned world champion with the A's in 1998, “Titi” returned to the Espoirs but came up against Italy. “The Games at home are once every hundred years. I still remember that I cried when, in qualifying in November 1999, we were eliminated by the Italy of Gattuso and Pirlo”he says.
“I didn't shed a tear when I won the World Cup, but I cried not to make the Sydney Olympics. That shows how important this competition is to me.”adds the former international striker. The Olympics are the only time when everyone wonders who won a medal. No matter the sport, on this day, we all love it. (…) At the Games, you are in a team that is part of a bigger team. For me, it's just extraordinary! »
