Thierry Henry has decided to stay at Arsenal and is expected to sign a new four-year contract with the north London football club on Friday, Britain’s Sun newspaper said.
”I hope to stay as long as I can keep running,” the tabloid quoted the club’s 28-year-old captain as saying.
”I could not face leaving the fans,” he said. ”They are like my family.”
”My team showed me I didn’t have to leave, they showed me they had heart,” Henry continued. ”I hope to finalise all the details today.”
The announcement is likely to give the club’s dejected fans a glimmer of hope following their side’s defeat in the Champions League final on Wednesday.
There had been much speculation that, after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat by Barcelona in Paris, their captain would accept a transfer to the Spanish giants worth a reported £35-million ($66-million).
Henry broke the Gunners’ all-time goalscoring record this season, getting 214 goals in 341 matches — 35 of them in the 70 Champions League matches he played.
He was also crowned best scorer in the English Championship this year, shooting 27 balls into the net. It was the fourth time he had won that accolade, after 2002, 2004 and 2005.
The French forward has been selected 76 times to play for his home team, for whom he has scored 31 goals, and was part of the French team that won the 1998 World Cup.
He will play for France in the World Cup finals which starts in Germany on June 9.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said after Wednesday’s debacle he hoped Henry would stay in north London in order to lead out the Gunners’ promising young team at their new 60 000-seat stadium at Ashburton Grove.
”I will try to talk to him because I have to prepare for next season.
”We have a young team, I feel this team is progressing and is a future big, big team. We need Thierry Henry to achieve that because he is such a big influence on our side,” Wenger said. – Sapa-AFP