Thierry Henry's €300,000 "dream" aquarium

As reported in Britain's Daily Mail - so you know it must not only must be true, but also completely accurate - the 34-year-old has slapped in an application to remodel his ever-so-modest London pad in the British capital's swanky suburb of Hampstead.

Apparently Henry wants to knock down the 1999-built €6million (or in local currency £7,2 million) house and replace it with something even bigger, better and more clearly suited to his needs.

That includes everything the modern-day man requires of course, such as a bar, a cinema a swimming pool and - the accessory that has tongues-a-wagging and journalists a-writing - a €300,000 mammoth aquarium running the entire height of what would become a humble four-storey home.

You can read the full details of the giant fish tank (although that seems the most inappropriate description) the 34-year old would like to install as well take a look at the plans he has submitted to the local council in the Daily Mail.

They're also available in euros in a report in the French daily Le Parisien and the weekly French celebrity gossip magazine Closer (yes it has attracted the attention of the serious sectors of the media).

But it's hard for anyone of regular means surely to get past some of the financial stats that come, not only with the initial price tag, but also the estimated heating, cleaning, stocking, lighting, feeding and maintenance costs.

Yes we're talking silly figures here.

Henry's application might run into a few problems though from those considering on the council who might consider giving him the green light.

Sir Richard MacCormac is against the project. He's the man who designed the current house that Henry wants to tear down, and whose construction is described by those "in the know" apparently as "one of the finest examples of modern day architecture in the United Kingdom."

And The Twentieth Century Society, a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards, is reportedly considering slapping in a request for the building to be listed, which would effectively scupper Henry's application.

The motive behind what would appear to be the most absurd of building projects is apparently Henry's desire to maintain a "pied à terre" in London so that he has somewhere to stay when he's over from the States to visit his daughter Téa who lives with his ex-wife Claire Merry.

Henry currently plays for New York Red Bulls and will be returning Stateside after a short spell on loan for one of his former clubs Arsenal.

Thierry Henry's New York loft (screenshot BFM TV)

Some of you might remember that Henry splashed out a miserly €11 million for a New York apartment when he first left Europe in September 2010.

Clearly the man has more money than sense.

Thierry Henry's 11 million euros apartment

It must be a tough life being Thierry Henry, an almost past-his-best great footballer most recently known for that infamous "helping hand" goal and, in spite of high hopes from many, his failure to say anything of any consequence about the French team's dismal performance at this year's World Cup in South Africa.

Screenshot of Thierry Henry during a TV interview after the 2010 World Cup

Those events are all behind him now as is the glory of his participation France's 1998 World Cup winning side, successful spells with some of Europe's leading clubs sides and a glittering career with Les Bleus that saw him become the country's top goal scorer in international matches.

At 33, "Titi" as he's still affectionately referred to by many in this country, hasn't exactly hung up his boots.

But he has in a way gone to pastures new and definitely green, in the shape of the good ol' US of A, where many a great before him has bolstered up early retirement with a handsome payout in a league which of course is "far from being a vacation".

In July this year Henry left one of Europe's top clubs, Barcelona, and signed for the New York Red Bulls, not for the money of course but for (in his words) the "honour of playing" for the team and helping them "win their first (Major League Soccer) championship."

And as is befitting a top quality player on a "modest" ($5.6 million or €4.1 million for this season) income albeit one that is not subject to the League's salary cap as he's one of the club's designated players, Henry has reportedly bought himself a humble little penthouse apartment in one of Manhattans' most chichi areas.

Described as "a triplex apartment on SoHo's Crosby Street" by the Wall Street Journal, Henry's new home includes "a media room with an integrated wet bar and 72" built-in flat screen TV" - obviously just what anyone needs after a hard day pounding the turf and earning the dollars.

The cost? A mere snip at $14.85 or €11.1 - million that is.

If you'd like to see the obvious squalor to which Henry will be subjected, then take a trip along to the Huffington Post to check out the photographs that appeared on the estate agency's listings....before it was sold.

Happy dreams!

Thierry Henry talks - and says nothing

Thierry Henry gives his first interview since France's lacklustre performance both on and off the pitch during the country's short-lived campaign at the World Cup in South Africa.



In a pre-recorded interview broadcast on the early evening news programme Le Grand Journal on Canal +, Henry answered questions about the exclusion of striker Nicolas Anelka, the refusal of the team to train, the feeling within the squad, claims of bullying and his meeting on Thursday with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

If the viewing public and the French as a whole had been hoping for an explanation of what exactly went on within the team, then they were in for a disappointment as Henry remained circumspect throughout the interview.

"The first reason for the 'fiasco' was that the team didn't play well," he said.

"When a side wins anything can happen but when there are setbacks, doubts occur, stories are invented and the rest is history."

Even though pressed on the whether coach Raymond Domenech had really been up to the job, Henry remained loyal saying that Domenech "had been there taking decisions and he had to be respected."

But he also admitted to having felt somewhat "isolated" from the rest of the group, although he refused outright to lay the blame with anyone or name names.

"I don't want to go into detail," he said. "I could have been like a big brother to the rest of the team, but it was difficult as I didn't really have any credibility."

Let's not forget that Henry, a member of France's 1998 World Cup winning team and the side that went on to lift the European Football championship in 2000, is probably the most respected player in France.

Domenech included Henry in the squad but kept him sidelined for much of the competition, bringing him in the second half of the final match against South Africa.

Of the now infamous insult allegedly hurled by Nicolas Anelka at Domenech and which led to the striker's exclusion, Henry remained guarded.

"I didn't hear exactly what was said but when you make that the headline of an article which appears in a newspaper, you have to be completely certain that you've got the correct wording."

Henry said he hadn't witnessed any of the reported fighting between players, nor had he seen pressure put on anyone.

But he also admitted that he didn't know what had gone on among the other players when he returned to his room.

He also insisted that the players' decision not to train as a protest against the French Football Federation's handling of Anelka had been a "unanimous one."

"We decided against training when we were in the bus and nobody was forced into the action," he said.

"With hindsight and in view of the consequences some might have regretted it, but at the time we were united."

Finally of his meeting with Sarkozy on Thursday, Henry said nothing more than it had "gone very well" even when pressed to reveal what the two men had discussed.

Henry's interview, along with those of his club team mate at Barcelona Eric Abidal and the Manchester United player Patrick Evra both of whom also gave interviews on Friday, have left many commentators in France wondering whether the players had agreed on a strategy for dealing with questions following their return home.

Say as little as possible in the short term and wait until later before going into detail as to what really happened.

Thierry Henry and Nicolas Sarkozy meet - but why?

Mystery surrounds the meeting between the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and international striker Thierry Henry on Thursday with nobody certain as to who requested the talks let alone what the two men discussed.

Sarkozy's office insists it was the French striker who asked to speak to the president, and a report in the national daily le Monde even quotes a spokesman for Sarkozy as saying that indeed "Thierry Henry had rung from South Africa requesting a meeting when he returned to France."

But national radio RTL reports the story the other way round insisting that it was Sarkozy who rang Henry to set up the meeting.

One thing's for certain though, when France's most capped player (122 appearances) and leading international scorer (51 goals) arrived back from South Africa on Thursday with the rest of the team, a car was waiting to whisk him away to president's official residence, the Elysée palace.

Thierry Henry (source Wikipedia, photo Shay)

Although journalists were waiting at the main entrance to pose their questions before and after the meeting, Henry discreetly entered and left through a side gate and without saying a thing, and there have been no leaks as to what the two men discussed.

They certainly had plenty to talk about after the French team's disastrous performance in South Africa, and Henry, a former captain of Les Bleus and a member of the 1998 World Cup winning team and the side that went on to lift the European Football championship in 2000 is a man with a glittering football pedigree.

But the meeting between the two men received short shrift from Jean-Louis Vielajus, the president of Coordination Sud.

He and other environmental non-governmental organisations had been scheduled to see Sarkozy ahead of the G20 summit in Toronto, but as he said on the federation's website, as far as the French president was concerned, football took priority.

"For Nicolas Sarkozy, holding a meeting with a footballer is more important than the situation of three billion poor people in developing countries," Vielajus said.

"It sends out a bad signal as far as the political co-operation of France is concerned."

Raymond Domenech's World Cup pay off

In spite of his denials, Raymond Domenech, rakes in a tidy sum for getting Les Bleus to the World Cup finals

It should be interesting to see how the manager of the French national football team, Raymond Domenech, reacts to the news of how much he has earned for helping the side reach the finals of the World Cup in South Africa next year.

After the French controversially qualified last month thanks to that now infamous "hand of Henry" in their match against the Republic of Ireland, speculation in the French media was widespread over just how much Domenech and his players had made.



More than €820,000 in total for Domenech alone, was the figure bandied about, and one which the 57-year-old was quick to dismiss.

"If I had earned that much I would be extremely happy," said an astonished Domenech when questioned about the amount on national radio.

"But it's far from being the case and I'm not even going to try to contradict something that appears to follow the usual editorial line," he continued, referring to the constant criticism over his management style that he has received from many quarters of the media during his five years in charge.

"It's a complete lie."

Except it wasn't if figures the national daily, Le Monde, has managed to get hold of from the French Football Federation (FFF, a pretty good source) are to believed.

They reveal that in fact Domenech earned €826,222.

Now of course we're all used to hearing about the elevated salaries of the world's top players.

And there's unquestionably room for debate over whether they're merited, the true "value" of those at the top of the beautiful game and the morality behind splashing out such vast sums.

Similarly it has to be admitted that Domenech's earnings pale somewhat in comparison with some of his international counterparts such as the England manager, Fabio Capello, whose annual salary is £6.5 million (€7.2 million).

But the confirmation coming just a couple of weeks after that denial from the French manager doesn't exactly put him in a good light, which is perhaps the reason Jean-Louis Valentin, the deputy director of the FFF has so readily leapt to his defence.

"He didn't lie," insisted Valentin, explaining that the total was broken down into several elements over a number of years.

"When you look at the salaries earned by politicians or film stars, you would never think about calculating them on a period covering two or three years," he continued.

"And Raymond Domenech could never have imagined (when asked the question) that the media would do exactly that in working out his salary."

So that's all cleared up then, and we can be rest assured that Domenech didn't in fact fall into the same trap of telling a lie - the very accusation he made of those French media reports.

Instead we can now happily hope that he breaks his habit of managing to produce less than the best from a squad of some of the world's most talented players and concentrate on him might actually win something in South Africa.

That would be a first in his managerial career.

Raise a glass, Beaujolais nouveau 2009 is here

Events on the pitch at the Stade de France in Paris on Wednesday evening, as the French qualified for the football World Cup finals in a rather dubious manner, rather overshadowed an annual tradition in this country as far as media coverage was concerned.

But while for many the debate raged, and continues to do so, over the merits of a result gained with the helping hand of Thierry Henry, for others there was more important business to attend to as the first bottles of this year's Beaujolais nouveau were uncorked.

And if many of the initial reviews and comments from the producers themselves are to believed, the Beaujolais wines in general this year will be good which should bode well for the quality and sales of Beaujolais nouveau too.

"This year's wine is one of the greatest vintages as far as I'm concerned, and my father, who has had a lot more experience than me thinks the same," said Édouard Labruyère a producer of one what is considered by many to be one of the leading Beaujolais wines, Moulin-à-vent.

"This is my first vintage and I've begun with a dream," echoed Remy Sandrin who has just joined his family's vineyard.

Traditionally Beaujolais nouveau is always released on the third Thursday of November at the stroke of midnight local time.

That meant of course that while more than 5,000 people had descended on the village of Beaujeu, in the heart of the Beaujolais-producing wine area, to celebrate the official release of this year's vintage in France, the Japanese had already been uncorking their bottles.

Many wine lovers and experts may dismiss the whole "event" as a mere marketing device that overshadows the quality of other wines produced in the region but according to Interbeaujolais, an organization representing wine growers and traders in the region, the importance of Beaujolais nouveau cannot be underestimated.

It has become a "prime mover" of other wines produced in the area, and the figures rather speak for themselves.

Of the 120 million bottles of all Beaujolais wines sold last year, Beaujolais nouveau accounted for one third (or 40 million bottles) with 15.5 million heading abroad.

And for this year Interbeaujolais reckons that sales of Beaujolais nouveau will be between 280,000 and 300,000 hectolitres, or over one third of the region's total harvest.

Enough statistics though, and to avoid becoming confused by the reviews that are already out there on the Net and in the press, and doubtless the many more still to come, perhaps your best bet is to grab a a glass (or a bottle) and try it for yourself.

It's a wine after all that needs to be drunk now.

So go on, judge for yourself.

Cheers.