France manager Didier Deschamps has labelled former teammate and current Belgium assistant manager Thierry Henry as the enemy ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup semi-final between the two countries.
Henry joined Roberto Martinez’s coaching staff in August 2016 for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and he’s helped guide the Belgians to their joint best ever tournament.
Henry was a part of the same French team that won the FIFA World Cup in 1998 and Deschamps said that it was a difficult situation for the former Arsenal striker but that he is now on the enemy team.
“When you go to a club abroad and play one from your own country, you are part of the enemy team,” Deschamps said.
“This time it is much higher. He is on the bench and facing his home nation. But he did know that from the time he became an assistant to Martinez. That can happen.
“I’m pleased for him, he’s somebody I appreciate. We played as team-mates. He jumped on the right train — he did a lot of great things after, for club and the national team.
“It is a difficult situation. It is not easy for him.”
Belgium manager Roberto Martinez has said that common sense has been the main factor behind Belgium’s rise at this year’s tournament and that the players have viewed international football as something greater than just a branding exercise.
“It’s been two years to try and understand these footballers, the human beings behind the footballers, and to try and get a group that shared the same ambition, not just to use the national team to improve their brand,” Martinez told a news conference.
“We’ve strived to be as good as we could be at international level and it’s taken us two years to get there. But there haven’t been one or two secrets to make it work, it’s been common sense.
“It’s a group of people who share a vision of making Belgian football proud and achieving something important and these players have done that.”
