Thierry Henry has signed to be an assistant to new coach Roberto Martinez as Belgium seek to qualify for the next World Cup finals in Russian Federation, it was announced on Friday.
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Martinez returned to the dugout earlier in August having previously lost his job with Everton back in May.
During his playing career Henry scored a plethora of goals for the likes of Arsenal, Barcelona and France, winning a multitude of honours along the way, including the World Cup and European Championship double.
Since hanging up his boots, he has been working as a pundit for Sky Sports and as an U18 coach at Arsenal – but he left that role last month.
With 20 of the 23-man Euro 2016 squad retained by Martinez for his first squad, it is clear the “fresh start” he wants to make will come primarily from the coaching staff – with Henry set to have a key role. “Thierry Henry’s experience of being able to go through that situation that we have as a team is going to be very important”. We need to support the players.
Henry, 39, tweeted: “Honoured to be assistant coach, very excited, can’t wait”.
The announcement was made on Friday morning, as Belgium named their squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Cyprus and friendly against Spain. Steven Defour, Kevin Mirallas and Thorgan Hazard were all recalled.
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Martinez has also stayed loyal to a couple of his other former Wigan backroom staff, with Inaki Bergara named goalkeeping coach and Richard Evans head of team and individual fitness.
