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Jordan Henderson played 19 games with Al Ettifaq (REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed)
The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia was the cornerstone of an ambitious project in the Saudi Pro League to attract world-class figures to raise the level of the championship and provide a renewed image to a Nation that aspires to organize a World Cup in the short term. This is how important names such as Sadio Mané, Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Bono and Aleksandar Mitrović, among others, arrived during the last transfer market.
The flight of talent from the main European leagues cracked the world map in the face of the economic power of the Saudis, but one player lived up to the saying that money does not buy happiness because he is one step away from returning to the Old Continent after a handful of matches in Al Ettifaq led by Steven Gerrard. That is Henderson, for whom Liverpool had accepted an offer from the Arab club last July of 12 million pounds (USD 15 million) and, a few months after his arrival, will terminate his contract to leave with the pass in his possession.
This was reported by The Athletic journalist David Ornstein: “Jordan Henderson has reached an agreement with Al Etiffaq to leave the club.” Both parties are “in the process of finalizing the termination of the contract” and the 33-year-old central midfielder “has agreed, in principle, to join Ajax.” In this sense, The Telegraph newspaper adds a striking look because they affirm that the protagonist never received his remuneration: “Jordan Henderson has not received a single cent from the Saudi club after deferring his salaries to avoid taxes in the United Kingdom” .
He scored 33 goals and 61 assists in 492 games for Liverpool (Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith)
The newspaper stated in its story signed by reporters Sam Wallace and Matt Law that, in the midst of his possible move to Europe, “he may never be paid for the six months he played in Al-Ettifaq.” It should be remembered that, according to the Associated Press agency, Henderson emigrated to the Asian country in exchange for a three-year contract with a million-dollar salary of USD 900,000 a week.
In this sense, his arrival in Dutch football would come with a salary even lower than his time from 2011 to 2023 at Liverpool, where he won eight titles, including 1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup. and 1 Premier League. The British morning newspaper The Sun stated that at Ajax he will earn 90,000 euros per week (USD 97,000) to be the highest paid on the team. Compared to USD 900,000, Jordan Henderson would leave almost 90% of what was agreed in Saudi Arabia on the road in order to return to Europe.
This medium detailed that the player’s family would have had “difficulties” adapting to life in the Middle East. The midfielder has already left the training camp of his, now, former team.
The decision to join this institution, where he did not score goals and contributed five assists in 19 games, had been criticized by LGBTQ+ defenders due to Saudi Arabia’s position on human rights and the previous support shown by Henderson to that movement. . The Athletic editor, Caoimhe O’Neill, a Liverpool fan and member of that group, referred to this in the following way: “Finally, when Henderson’s true values were tested and he was forced to choose between morals and money, gave his answer. And a lot of people will find it hard to forget.”
He played in the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups with England (Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff)
In September 2023, the England national team player explained the reasons for his determination in a conversation with this last cited source: “I wanted something that excited me. But it had to be something where he felt like he could add value and do and try something new: a new challenge and for different reasons.”
“And this opportunity with Stevie (Gerrard) in a totally different league and a totally different culture was something completely different, that maybe we would be excited about in terms of the project that was presented to us, in terms of the league and using my experience to trying to help with that in many different areas and feeling that people value it,” he said.
The Telegraph added that Al Ettifaq “does not hold any grudge against Jordan Henderson for his departure and understands his reasons for wanting to return so soon.” Without him, Gerrard will have to rebuild his puzzle and raise the image at the local level, which has him in eighth position with 25 points, 28 points behind the leader (Al Hilal) and 8 from Al Ta’ee, the last team that drops to Second division.
2024-01-17 21:12:00
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