After months of speculation, the Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has finally left the club to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq.
Henderson was signed by Anfield legend Kenny Dalglish, and enjoyed 11 years at the club, winning pretty much every domestic trophy it was possible for him to win, including the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Football League Cup, the charity Shield, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
For new Al-Ettifaq head coach, Steven Gerrard it’s a move of familiarity, recruiting a player he knows well—the pair had four years together at Anfield—and who has bought fully into the Liverpool mentality of how to perform both on and off the pitch.
For the Saudi Pro League, well, there’s familiarity too. While Al-Ettifaq aren’t one of the four clubs recently acquired by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Henderson is the 6th player to move from the Premier League to the Kingdom since June 5, and the 12th big name from Europe’s top leagues.
While it was originally thought that 33-year-old Henderson, with two years remaining on his contract, would look to stay in the Premier League in a bid to remain on England manager Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 radar, it appears that the landscape has changed a little. Most notably with Liverpool’s playing staff.
After a disappointing season last year, Liverpool have moved early in this summer’s transfer market to secure midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister. As a result, it’s felt that Henderson’s gametime under Klopp this year would have been limited, after making 43 appearances last season.
Liverpool are expected to receive around $15m plus add ons for Henderson, who has said his goodbyes to teammates and also issued an emotional goodbye via Twitter saying, “It’s hard to put these last 12 years into words and it’s even harder to say goodbye. I will always be Red. Until the day I die.”
It’s also looking like Liverpool will be set to lose another midfielder to the Saudi Pro League, with the Brazilian Fabinho expected to join Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante at Al-Ittihad for a fee of approximately $58m.