Soccer Great Thierry Henry Announces His Retirement From The Game

Montreal Impact vs NY Red Bulls

Today, Tuesday morning the 16th of December, 2014, the French football master, whose time at Arsenal and the French national team is the stuff of legend, announced he will retire from the sport. He spent his last four years trying to help grow soccer in America while playing with the New York Red Bulls, .

Henry, now 37, started playing professionally at 17. He is the all-time leading scorer at Arsenal with 228 goals, and one of the best strikers the world has ever seen.  He scored over 350 goals in competition, 52 of those for the New York Red Bulls .

In the soccer community, Henry is revered, respected, and feared. So he will make a welcome addition to his new position with Sky Sports.

Henry was successful everywhere he played. His career began in 1994 with AS Monaco in France, in 1997 he was named the French Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year. The next year, Henry got his first shot at playing for his country in the 1998 World Cup. During that World Cup he led the team with three goals and also led them to a World Cup victory, all while Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps were on the team.

This led to well deserved notoriety and he was quickly purchased by Juventus in 1999, but he moved to Arsenal during the season. He would spend the next eight years at Arsenal in North London. He was at his best during these years and led the team to two Premier League titles and earned three FA Cup trophies.

In 2006, Henry led the French team again to the final of the World Cup where they lost to Italy on penalties. The following year Henry moved to FC Barcelona where he helped win two consecutive La Liga championships.

After three years in Barcelona, Henry decided to take his talents and notoriety to New York City. A city he says he has always loved. After four seasons all-star seasons, he decided to retire.

 

TV Replays May Come To The Soccer World

One of the biggest gripes that some coaches have with the World Cup is the lack of instant replay. Whether you call it soccer or fubol, it still stands that every other major sport in the world, with very few exceptions, has some sort of reply into place. FIFA has long held the stance that it would diminish the flow of the game and cause issues moving forward. However, in a recent change of heart, one of the heads of the soccer world has changed his mind.

Sepp Blatter, is head of FIFA, and he’s the one that championing this notion, causing a great deal of speculation as to whether or not replays will be a factor in the future of the sport. As of now, there is no instant replay in place, and coaches cannot challenge a referee’s call.

Soccer Instant Replay

The Proposal for Instant Replays

The latest proposal will be for an instant replay solution that will be monitored by an individual that is neutral. Coaches may disagree with a call during breaks in the game, and would only be allowed to do so within a limited time frame. This changeover is very similar to that of the NFL’s replay rules, and will definitely cause a stir. There are some that say this would change up the flow of the progressive game of soccer, since the game continues forward without real breaks aside from the split between halves.

Date Set to World Cup 2015?

There is no date set on this option, but there may be a start at the Under-20 World Cup that is set to happen in New Zealand in 2015. If that’s a success, alongside goal line technology, television replay will come home to this game and could be a major component of all major games in the future. It should be noted that it took a long time for goal line technology come to the game, and that has been met with good results in 2014. It was as recent as 2010 that goal line technology would’ve made the deciding factor in World Cup tournament games.

FIFA is notorious for changing their minds, so perhaps taking this news with a grain of salt is a good thing. TV replays sound good, but until they are implemented in play, things are not going to change quite yet.