Embracing his gang of 'Crazies', acting as a father figure - and showing off his dance moves! How Thierry Henry turned 'poison into medicine' to put France on the brink of Olympic gold glory

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His road through management has been bumpy, but suddenly it has brought Thierry Henry rewards beyond his wildest expectations and the effect on him was transparently clear when he gave a press conference of rare and raw emotion on Thursday.

Henry, who will send out a young French side into the Olympic final against Spain on Friday night, spoke for nearly 40 minutes about his country, his patriotism and the beautiful circularity of the team's journey concluding at the Parc des Princes, a short drive from the tenements of the Les Ulis commune where he grew up.

'I don't usually go into the extremes but I'm living a dream, really, and it will be hard to wake up,' he said, reflecting his sense that these Olympics are, for a time at least, salving racial divisions which scarred French politics in the early summer.

'I don't know how to say this...' Henry said. 'When we put our minds to it, no one can stop us. We needed this after what happened before the Olympics started. When we unite, we are a beautiful country.'

The 46-year-old's relationship with the French football public has not always been easy, but the nation has seen a new paternalism and warmth in Henry these past weeks with the Espoirs — 'the hopefuls' — or 'the Crazies', as he has taken to calling his team.

Thierry Henry got emotional during his press conference on the eve of Friday's football final

France have beaten the USA, Guinea, New Zealand, Argentina and Egypt en route to the final

A video of him dancing in the corridor after the semi-final win over Egypt, while his players filmed him on their phones, has gone viral.

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It has not been straightforward. Henry had harboured hopes of including Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann or Olivier Giroud among the three over-age players each country can field in their Under 23 Olympics team.

The prospect of Under 23 stars like Real Madrid's Eduardo Camavinga and Manchester United's Leny Yoro also vanished. Some of France's early displays were unconvincing.

But Henry, whose management spells at Monaco and Montreal Impact were not successful, has nurtured optimism.

'What can be your poison sometimes can be your medicine,' he said, when asked how it felt to manage such youngsters. 'Those guys do things they shouldn't be doing at the end of games — not keeping balls in the corner flag — but they will also do something, because you are young and that means you are learning. They are re-educating me, teaching me that at times I need to let go. These guys do things you are not supposed to do and it works and you then think, "That works?".'

Jean-Philippe Mateta (right), one of three France players aged 24 or over, has scored four goals

Henry pictured dancing in the France dressing room after his side beat Egypt in the semi-finals

They include Alexandre Lacazette, the former Arsenal striker now at Marseille, and Michael Olise, who left Crystal Palace for Bayern Munich this summer and provided a goal and an assist as the team came from behind to beat Egypt 3-1.

'You rarely have players like Michael,' Henry said. 'It's his will. He wanted to play for the French team. This gives me the chills because before he announced the decision we didn't know what he wanted to do. He could have gone and played for England, but this is his dream.'

There is a sense here that history is on the side of the French. They won the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and members of that team will be at the Parc de Princes on Friday night. That same summer, France won the European Championship here, beating Spain 2-0 in the final.

Henry offered an emotive description of how, for the first time, his children are seeing him in a competitive environment.

'It's something better than anything you can win, having your family and kids watching you. I've never had that before. If you're not emotional about that, you have a problem.'

Henry, 46, has affectionately been referring to his France side as 'the Crazies' this summer

There will be no wish, he said, to extract revenge for Spain's elimination of France at the semi-final stage of the Euros, though the Spanish will field two members of that senior squad, Barcelona's Fermin Lopez and Villarreal's Alex Baena.

He cautioned his players against the emotion of the occasion overwhelming them. 'You've got to feel it, but don't become it.'

Given his description of how it feels to play at the Parc des Princes, he may struggle with that. 'Parc des Princes is George Weah, David Ginola, Bernard Lama,' he said. 'I can still see images of Ginola playing in here. It's the Parc des Princes — what can I say? It's everything.'

L'Equipe has suggested that victory on Friday could see the US approaching Henry to coach their team at the 2028 LA Olympics, despite France's own FA also being keen to keep him.

But first, there is a night of monumental significance for the French.

'We have this vision of a gold medal and we find ourselves in this situation, so we can keep the dream alive,' Henry said. 'We go for the gold medal, as we wanted to from the start.'