Football
Ian Holyman, France correspondent 9y

Henry happy at France honour with Zidane, Viera, Desailly at Brazil friendly

Thierry Henry will join Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira and Marcel Desailly on the Stade de France pitch on Thursday as the French Football Federation (FFF) honours its select group of players with more than 100 caps.

France's all-time leading goal scorer Henry, 37, Zidane, 42, Vieira, 38, and Desailly, 46, will step out onto the turf where they helped France win the 1998 World Cup ahead of Les Bleus' friendly with Brazil to receive the acclaim of the 80,000-capacity crowd while a video of their achievements is played inside the stadium.

France's main sports daily L'Equipe started a campaign earlier this year for Henry, who only retired in December, to be called up for the game to allow him -- the paper argued -- a more fitting end to his illustrious international career than that afforded by France's ignominious 2010 World Cup campaign.

"I am more than happy to be honoured at this game and happy to get back to the Stade de France and the fans. It doesn't matter how I do that," Henry, who also won Euro 2000 alongside the others honoured, told L'Equipe. "If I had been asked to carry the physio's bag, I would have done it.

"If I'd been asked to be an assistant referee, I would have done it and wouldn't have signalled any French player offside. Everything is different now. When you play, you have a killer's spirit, you're not there to joke around. Now, that's behind me."

The other players who reached a century of international appearances -- current France boss Didier Deschamps, who played 103 times for his country, and Lilian Thuram, who has a record 142 caps but who has a prior engagement -- will not take part in the ceremony, which will start shortly after 20.00 CET.

The quartet will first be the central focus of a ceremony attended by French president Francois Hollande and FFF boss Noel Le Graet, and will receive a number of gifts, including a shirt bearing the number of their caps, before stepping into the arena.

Henry featured in 123 games for France, scoring 51 times, while Zidane played in 108, notably netting two of their goals in the 3-0 defeat of Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final. Vieira won 107 caps while Desailly played 116 matches in his national team's colours.

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