PARIS (Reuters) - Former France striker Thierry Henry was given his first head coaching role when he was appointed by AS Monaco on a three-year deal to replace Leonardo Jardim who was sacked on Thursday, the Ligue 1 club announced on Saturday.
Henry, who started out playing for Monaco and went on to enjoy a stellar club career with Arsenal and Barcelona, has been working as assistant coach for the Belgian national team but has never been in charge of a team in his own right.
Henry, 41, played for Monaco for five seasons, winning a league title with them in 1997.
"I thank AS Monaco for giving me the opportunity to coach the team of this club which is so special to me," he said.
"I am very happy to come back to AS Monaco and extremely determined to meet the challenges ahead. I cannot wait to meet the players to start working together."
AS Monaco, last season's runners-up, are 18th in the 20-team Ligue 1 table after winning one of their first nine games. They have also lost their opening two games in the Champions League.
(Writing by Ken Ferris and Brian Homewood; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)