Thierry Henry and 5 Other Footballers Who Returned to Their Former Clubs

Who said you can never go home again?

Thierry Henry is reportedly heading back to North London to play for Arsenal, the club where he scored a record 226 goals in eight years. According to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, all that's left to do is to reach an insurance agreement with the New York Red Bulls, Henry's MLS club.

That got us thinking: Who are some of the other high-profile stars to return to "their" club? You know, the one where they either became famous or played their best years.

It turns out there were a bunch of them, so we had to narrow the list.

For this list, the player in question must have returned to one of the clubs that you immediately associate him with. So while Henrik Larsson started and finished his career at Helsingborg, we’re not including that return because most people would probably associate the dreadlocked Swede with Celtic, his club from 1997-2004.

And we could have included Cesc Fabregas, but we left him off too since he wasn’t exactly a star when he left Barcelona for Arsenal at the age of 16 in 2003.

Who did we include? Read on to find out.

Thierry Henry

Club: Arsenal

Original run: 1999-2007

Return: 2011?

It looks like those guys are gonna have to make a new video.

Thierry Henry scored a club-record 226 goals for Arsenal from 1999-2007. If indeed he does re-sign with the Gunners on loan, you can bet he'll add a few goals to that tally.

Henry initially joined Arsenal in 1999 for an estimated fee of £11 million from Juventus. There he reunited with Arsene Wenger, his manager at AS Monaco from 1994-99.

The rest is history, of course. Henry went scoreless in his first eight games but finished his first season with 26 goals. He eventually became captain in 2005 following the transfer of Patrick Vieira and left for Barcelona in 2007.

Jurgen Klinsmann

Club: Tottenham Hotspur

Original run: 1994-95

Return: 1997-98 (loan)

This one is a bit of a stretch. Jurgen Klinsmann played for several high-profile clubs, including Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. And his most successful spell might have come at VfB Stuttgart.

But his arrival in England was a major event. With his reputation for, uh, making the most of challenges, Klinsmann received a hostile welcome from the press.

He won them over, though, with a cheeky goal celebration (fast forward to the 2:12 mark) and some sterling play, scoring 30 goals in all competitions.

Klinsi left after one year, heading to Bayern Munich and his native Germany. But he returned on loan for 15 league matches in the 1997-98 season. In those 15 matches he scored nine times.

Teddy Sheringham

Club: Tottenham Hotspur

Original run: 1992-97

Return: 2001-03

Teddy Sheringham's most famous moment certainly did not come in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt. But it was at Spurs that the England forward earned his reputation as an "intelligent" player.

And it didn't hurt that he had Jurgen Klinsmann for a strike partner in 1994-95. That season, Sheringham scored 23 goals in all competitions. In his first spell with Spurs, from 1992-97, Sheringham scored 98 goals.

After four seasons (and one very famous Champions League goal) with Manchester United, he returned to London for the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. He scored 27 goals in 80 appearances.

Ian Rush

Club: Liverpool

Original run: 1980-87

Return: 1988-96

In his first spell with Liverpool, Ian Rush became one of the game's most feared strikers. The Welsh international scored 207 goals from 1980-87, including a whopping 47 in all competitions during the 1983-84 season.

In 1987, he signed with Juventus of Italy. He struggled that season, scoring only 13 times before moving back to Liverpool.

Back in England, Rush scored 139 more goals over the next eight seasons to finish with a total of 346 for Liverpool.

Michael Ballack

Club: Bayer Leverkusen

Original run: 1999-2002

Return: 2010-present

Sure, Michael Ballack had successful spells at Bayern Munich and Chelsea. But he broke through with Bayer Leverkusen.

As a young central midfielder, Ballack helped lead Bayern Leverkusen to the 2002 Champions League final, where they lost 2-1 to Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid.

Ballack returned to Leverkusen in 2010 and still plays there today.

Robbie Fowler

Club: Liverpool

Original run: 1993-2001

Return: 2006-07

Also known as "God," Robbie Fowler got that title for his 171 goals in his first spell at Liverpool, from 1993-2001.

God returned in 2006 and managed 12 more goals for the Reds before leaving town again.