New York Red Bulls head of global football (whatever the hell that means) Gerard Houllier has confirmed that former Arsenal striker (on two separate occasions) and living god Thierry Henry will not return to the MLS team after his contract expires at season's end. The Google Translate version makes no sense, so I'll use SB Nation's significantly better translation here:
He planned to put an end to his career, it is possible that these could be his final matches. It may be that the urge will tickle him and that he will retire somewhere else, but it will not be with the Red Bulls.
There have been rumors for months that Henry would retire from professional soccer after the MLS season's close -- he's 37 years old, and while he's still among the league's best players and not too far removed from contributing at Arsenal while here on loan in 2012, he's been playing professionally for twenty years or so, and you could understand wanting to move on to the next challenge. But it sounds like that's not guaranteed.
Rumors have also been swirling for a while about another return to Arsenal. It seems unlikely that he would come back as a player -- we already have more forwards than playing time, and Henry wouldn't be available to come back until around when Olivier Giroud will presumably be coming back from injury. We're not as desperate as we were in 2012.
But talk of Henry coming in as a coach has been around for years, and he's even spoken about a desire to manage Arsenal after Arsene Wenger retires. I honestly don't know whether he'd be amazing at that or terrible, but I like the idea of it. I'd be extremely pleased if Thierry Henry were to come back to North London after he's done in New York (or Harrison, New Jersey, if you're precise), and if it's as a coach, all the better. Either way, if he does plan to retire as a player, I hope he does it as an Arsenal player, if only for a day.