Thierry Henry reveals Olise called him every day to play for France

Michael Olise chose France over England with rare conviction, as Thierry Henry reveals in the Kampo podcast. While the England squad offered him a place at Euro 2024, the Bayern Munich winger preferred to join the French U23s for the Paris Olympics.

“Michael, he called me every day to go to the Olympics, while there was the England team that wanted him to go to the European Championship with the senior squad,” confides the former France U23 coach. “His desire to play for the France team was extraordinary. I didn’t convince anyone.”

Henry stresses that this choice carried real risk for the player, who was simultaneously negotiating his transfer from Crystal Palace to Bayern Munich. Olise nonetheless made an unambiguous decision: “He told me: ‘Wherever I go, I’m going to tell my club I’m going to the Olympics, that’s it’.”

The admiration of the 1998 World Cup winner for the 24-year-old player goes beyond this episode. “My respect for him is enormous,” he declares, describing Olise as a genius “apart because he thinks differently.” “At some point, with geniuses, you shouldn’t try to understand them. Are you going to tell a painter how to paint?”

Born in London to a Nigerian father and Franco-Algerian mother, Olise had the choice between three national teams. It was France he chose, and Didier Deschamps took advantage of it at the 2026 World Cup. Zinédine Zidane, his successor as France head coach, is expected to start him Thursday evening in Milan for a Nations League match against Italy that could qualify France for the competition’s quarter-finals.