Montreal (AFP)

Thierry Henry resigned Thursday from the Montreal club just 15 months after his arrival, a new setback in the young career of the coach of the top scorer in the history of the France team who wants to find his family from whom he was estranged by the pandemic.

"It is with a heavy heart that I decided to make this decision," said the 1998 world champion in a statement released by the Canadian club, resident of the North American Football Championship (MLS).

"The separation is too painful for me and my children. So I must make the decision to return to London and leave CF Montreal," he detailed, citing the "restrictions in place" to fight against Covid-19 who kept him away from his relatives.

This is a new brake in Henry's career on the sidelines: the former Arsenal striker, 43, was only appointed in November 2019 in Montreal and will only have spent one full season at the helm of the Quebec club.

This post was for Henry only the second as N.1 coach, after a catastrophic first experience in Monaco in 2018-2019, where he remained only 20 matches and 100 days.

With Montreal, the Frenchman signed a fairly mixed 2020 season: the Impact Montreal team, subsequently renamed CF Montreal, was notably out in the quarterfinals of the Champions League of Concacaf, the confederation of Central and North America, and was eliminated in the MLS play-offs at the end of 2020.

The sporting director of the Canadian club, Olivier Renard, nevertheless regretted this resignation, citing an "unhappy and premature" departure after a "promising" start.

- "Not obvious" mentally -

But the ex-Barcelona striker, consultant for several years for English television and father of three children, two of whom are under the age of ten, preferred to make the choice of family reunion by ending his lease in Quebec, where he had initially signed for two years plus an optional one.

"The last year has been extremely difficult for me personally. Due to the global pandemic, I have not been able to see my children," he explained.

The former assistant to Roberto Martinez at the head of the Belgian selection had been cited in recent weeks among the potential candidates for an appointment as coach of Bournemouth (England D2), but this club recently confirmed that the interim Jonathan Woodgate would end the season as a coach.

In an interview with AFP in January, Henry had already mentioned his difficulties in evolving away from his family, due in particular to the restrictions that forced the Montreal club to play most of its matches in the United States.

"When you train and you can come home, even in times of Covid, like in the French championship, (it's okay), but we had to play away and at one point on the plan mental, it's not always easy, "he said, admitting to having" learned a lot "on a" human "level.

In front of Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini or Zinédine Zidane and more recently Olivier Giroud (44 goals), Henry remains the top scorer in the history of the France team, with 51 goals in 123 selections between 1997 and 2010.

But like his exile in MLS and his failure in Monaco, the famous Arsenal center-forward, who has lived in London for a long time, has often remained at a distance from France.

© 2021 AFP