Joël Henry

Joël Henry
Personnel
birthday	April 19, 1962
place of birth	Armentières ,  France
size	180 cm
position	midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1978-1983	Lille OSC	56 (16)
1980-1981	→  SEC Bastia  (loan)	25 0(5)
1983-1986	Armorique Brest	84 (14)
1986-1987	OGC Nice	33 0(5)
1987-1988	SC Toulon	34 0(4)
1988-1992	FC Nantes	113 0(7)
1992-1993	Limoges FC
1 Only league games are given.

Joël Henry (born as Joël Depraeter , born April 19, 1962 in Armentières ) is a former French football player .

Career

Starts at Lille and Bastia (until 1981)

Henry, who was called Depraeter until the age of 17 , played in the youth of a club from Erquinghem-Lys before he was accepted into the youth training center of the first division OSC Lille at the age of fourteen . In 1978 he signed a professional contract, moved up to the first team and was only 16 years old when he made his debut in the French top flight on August 18, 1978 in a 0-0 draw against FC Nantes . In the game he was on the pitch from the start. However, rivals like Didier Simon and Roberto Cabral did not allow him to secure a regular place in attacking midfield, which is why he could not get beyond sporadic appearances. In view of this, he was awarded in 1980 to the first division rivals SEC Bastia from the island of Corsica . The loan was part of a deal that primarily involved the sale of Bastia's Moroccan Abdelkrim Merry to Lille. At Bastia, Henry was seen as an alternative to the former national player Claude Papi and made his breakthrough as a regular at the age of 18. He was also used in the national cup final in 1981 , which brought him the only title win of his career thanks to a 2-1 win against AS Saint-Étienne .

Second time in Lille and move to Brest (1981–1986)

After winning the cup, he returned to Lille in 1981 at the insistence of those responsible there, although Bastia would have liked to keep him and he himself had considered staying with the Corsicans. At Lille he still had to fight for a place in the top eleven with Didier Simon and was therefore not set. 1982 came with Arnaud dos Santos a new coach, who gave Henry a regular place in the team. When the U-23 international's contract, which never made it to the French senior team, expired in 1983, he aroused the interest of several clubs. He decided on the club Armorique Brest , which was also a first-class club , where he met his friend Bernard Pardo from their time together in Lille. He was an integral part of a team that was in a relegation battle, even if the fall into the second division did not become a reality. In addition to good performance on the soccer field, he drew attention in his private life and was considered an excessive party-goer. At Brest, he was used in a variety of ways both in midfield and in attack and at the same time suffered from the financial weakness of his employer, because of which he had to wait months for his salary.

Frequent changes and time in Nantes (after 1986)

In 1986 he went to the first division club OGC Nice , based in the south of the country , where he formed a duo in the attacking midfield with Fabrice Mège . However, he only stayed a year, since he found the fifth first division club in SC Toulon in 1987 , which took him under contract. At Toulon he met Pardo again and was part of a surprise team that unexpectedly finished fifth in the table in 1988. Nevertheless, he moved again this year and signed with FC Nantes, also playing in the top division . He took his place behind the offensive duo Mo Johnston and Thierno Youm , but he did not come with a team that had been champions in 1983, not among the top teams and missed the entry into the European competition, in which he did not participate at any point in his career could. Nevertheless, the stable sporting situation was the decisive factor for him to extend his stay in Nantes and reject more financially lucrative offers. During the 1991/92 season he suffered a knee injury that forced the 30-year-old at the end of the season to end his professional career after 345 first division games with 51 goals. For another year he wore the jersey of the lower class FC Limoges . He settled near the city of Limoges and founded a company for industrial cleaning systems.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joël Henry , afterfoot.fr
2. ^ Joël Henry - Fiche de stats du joueur de football , pari-et-gagne.com
3. ^ Joël Henry Depraeter complete profile ( memento from March 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), soccerdatabase.eu
4. ↑ Joël Henry: "Au LOSC, je suis devenu adulte" ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , losc.fr