Thierry Henry replaces Sylvain Ripoll as France U21 team head coach

France football icon Thierry Henry has been appointed as the head coach of the France U21 team until 2025 on Tuesday.

The official social media handle of the French Football Federation (FFF) took to X, formerly known as Twitter to announce Henry as the successor of for the position of U21 head coach.

"Thierry Henry has been appointed as the new France U21 manager, up until 2025 The former French international will lead Les Bleuets through the upcoming qualifying campaign for the 2025 U21 Euros, as well as Olympic Games in Paris in 2024," the FFF wrote in their tweet.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗲𝗻𝗿𝘆 est nommé sélectionneur de l’Équipe de France Espoirs, jusqu’en 2025 ✍️

L’ancien international dirigera les Bleuets pour la prochaine campagne de qualification à l’Euro U21 2025 et pour les Jeux Olympiques de Paris 2024 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/Bj59AzydZF

— Equipe de France ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) August 21, 2023

The 1998 World Cup winner has had a fair share of experience in the managerial role. He was the assistant manager of Belgium on two occasions, from 2016 to 2018 and 2021 to 2022. The Arsenal legend also acted as interim head coach for a short period.

Along with this Henry has also managed Ligue 1 side Monaco during the 2018/19 season and Canadian Club CF Montreal in 2020.

Henry's first game as head coach will be a friendly against Denmark on September 7, four days before the European U-21 Championship qualifier against Slovenia which will be played on September 11.

On a personal level, Henry has been capped 123 times by his country and he is the second-highest goal scorer in the history of France (51 goals).

For Arsenal, the iconic attacker featured 258 times, scoring 175 goals and registering 74 assists. He won the Golden Boot award four times 2001/02, 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06. Henry was also awarded the Player of the Season twice in 2003/04 and 2005/06.