Thierry Henry's Olympic Journey and the Future of French Football

Thierry Henry has already felt the weight of a nation on his shoulders.

In Paris this summer, he carried it again.

As coach of France’s Olympic team at the 2024 Games, Henry drove the hosts all the way to a final against Spain. The script was almost perfect. Almost. Extra-time broke French hearts, silver medals replacing the gold that seemed within reach for Michael Olise and his teammates.

That tournament did more than revive Henry’s coaching credentials. It reminded France, and perhaps Henry himself, what he looks like with a technical area at his feet and a national crest on his chest.

Since hanging up his boots, Henry’s journey on the touchline has been restless and uneven. A brief and bruising spell at Monaco, a return to MLS with Montreal Impact, then a stint alongside Roberto Martinez in the Belgium national team set-up. He has seen different dressing rooms, different cultures, different pressures.

For now, at 48, he has stepped back into the relative comfort of punditry. He is keeping his options open, not throwing himself at the first vacancy that comes his way. But there are some jobs you do not ignore. Some calls you always pick up.

France is one of them.

Zidane steps in, Deschamps bows out

Didier Deschamps is walking away after 14 years in charge of Les Bleus, a reign that delivered the 2018 World Cup and the UEFA Nations League. His tenure has defined a generation: constant deep runs, semi-finals, finals, a team that almost always arrived in the last week of a major tournament.

Into that space steps Zinedine Zidane. A Ballon d’Or winner, a World Cup and European champion as a player, and now a coach whose reputation has so far been built entirely at Real Madrid. His first job outside the Bernabeu comes with a star-studded France squad featuring Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and a conveyor belt of emerging talent.

The expectation is simple and brutal: win.

Jeremie Aliadiere, another member of that gilded French generation and part of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’, understands the scale of the moment. Speaking to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, he framed Zidane’s arrival as almost mythical.

“Zidane in France is something different and now we've touched the gods. Zidane will always be Zidane,” he said. His hope is clear: “I wish and I really hope that he succeeds and everything goes well.”

Deschamps has set a fierce standard. “As much as Deschamps didn't win this World Cup, he's still all the time going to semis, to finals, won in 2018,” Aliadiere pointed out. “So you just think it's still going to be a challenge for Zidane to get over the line.”

The bar is not participation. It is silverware.

“The next step now really for Zidane, he has to win something,” Aliadiere added. “He can't just come and then do a semi-final or a quarter-finals. And we know how hard it is to win it. Only one team can.”

He drew a pointed comparison with England, a team that has been “so close but not quite there” in recent tournaments, warning how quickly patience can evaporate when a golden generation keeps falling short. “Hopefully Zidane can do it,” he concluded.

The class of ’98, and the question of succession

Hovering behind all of this is a tantalising idea: when Zidane’s time eventually ends, could the line of 1998 World Cup winners in the dugout continue?

Deschamps has carried the baton. Zidane will now grip it. Henry, another hero of that summer, is the obvious name waiting in the background.

When the question was put to Aliadiere – could Henry one day take the France job and keep that class of ’98 run going? – his answer was instinctive.

“Why not? I'm sure Thierry will be delighted to get the job,” he said.

The evidence of Henry’s commitment to the tricolore is fresh. “We've seen how patriotic he is and how much he loves France. We saw him during the Olympic Games in 2024 as well. He's had a great tournament there,” Aliadiere noted. “I'm sure that'll be in the back of his mind and he will love to get the opportunity at some point.”

Henry is not pushing, not yet. But the idea is out there, lodged in the public conversation and, as Aliadiere suggests, likely lodged in Henry’s own ambitions.

A golden era ready-made for Zidane

For now, the stage belongs to Zidane, and he inherits a squad that looks primed for sustained dominance.

Pressed on whether France will remain contenders for European Championships and World Cups with this current core, Aliadiere did not hesitate. “Yeah, 100%. I think so.”

He bristled at any attempt to play down Deschamps’ record. “As much as people might say that Didier Deschamps has only one World Cup, that is obviously more than a lot of anyone else,” he said. “But you just think what he's done in terms of leading the team with such a great squad and great talent.”

Zidane’s task, in Aliadiere’s eyes, is not to rebuild. It is to refine.

“Zidane's going to come in and he hasn't got a lot to do really. Everything's already set for him to succeed,” he argued. The core is strong, the age profile favourable, and there are even players who barely featured at the Olympics or recent tournaments who could shape the next cycle.

“You think a player like [Rayan] Cherki who couldn't get much minutes in there, he'll be in for two years, four years. You think about [Hugo] Ekitike who was injured before it,” Aliadiere said. “It's like the names that you've got and the talent you've got, I think Zidane now has just got to put his little magic on it and then make it work.”

That is the challenge. France are not searching for an identity. They already have one. Zidane must turn potential into trophies, and do it quickly, with the eyes of a demanding football nation fixed on him.

Somewhere down the line, if and when Zidane steps aside, the conversation will circle back to Henry. He has already worn the shirt, felt the pressure, and now tasted the heat of a home Olympics from the technical area.

If the class of ’98 is to write one more chapter from the bench, will it be Henry who takes the final bow?