Thierry Henry wins Sports Personality of the Year 2025 award for lifetime achievement

Born in the Paris suburb of Les Ulysses, Henry won the World Cup on home soil in 1998 and was an integral part of the team that won the European Championship in 2000.

With 51 goals in 123 appearances for the French national team, Henry was the country’s all-time top scorer until former Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud surpassed his goal tally in 2022.

But his infamous handball against the Republic of Ireland during the 2009 World Cup qualifiers caused major controversy.

He handled the ball in the lead-up to William Gallas’s decisive extra-time goal, which sealed a 1-1 draw on the night and a 2-1 aggregate victory for France, ending Ireland’s chances of qualifying for the 2010 finals.

After eight seasons at Arsenal, Henry joined Barcelona in 2007 and won the treble – La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey – in 2009 with the Catalan giants, as they beat Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the Champions League final in Rome.

The Frenchman joined Major League Soccer side New York Red Bulls in 2010 but returned to Arsenal for a seven-game loan spell in 2012.

In his first appearance for the club in five years, Henry scored in a 1-0 win over Leeds United.

Henry scored his only other goal during the two-month loan spell in his final appearance for Arsenal, an injury-time winner against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

After retiring in 2014, Henry took up a career as a pundit and worked for BBC Sport as a pundit for Euro 2016.

Having worked with Arsenal’s youth teams, Henry took his first steps into management as assistant coach to Belgium national team Roberto Martinez in 2016.

In October 2018, Henry was appointed coach of his former club Monaco, but spent only three months coaching the Ligue 1 side.

He was named head coach of MLS team Montreal Impact in 2019 but left the Canadian club in 2021 in order to return to Europe.

Henry was appointed coach of the France U21 national team in 2023, and led their Olympic team at the 2024 Paris Games – where they won silver, losing to Spain in the final.