Liverpool accept offer from Al-Ettifaq for Jordan Henderson

Liverpool accept offer from Al-Ettifaq for Jordan Henderson

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is on his way to Saudi Arabia.

Jordan Henderson, one of the faces of the Premier League’s LGBTQ+ campaign, is headed for the Saudi Pro League.

The midfielder will link up with his former teammate and predecessor in the Liverpool armband, Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard was recently appointed as manager of the Saudi club just months after being dismissed by Aston Villa.

Gerrard’s club have agreed an initial fee of £12 million for Henderson’s services but will be set back £700,000 a week for the 33-year-old’s wages.

He is expected to sign a two-year contract with the option of extending it to three years included in the paperwork. He was previously earning £200,000 a week at Anfield.

Henderson

Jordan Henderson leaves Liverpool.

It is reported by the Guardian that Henderson was initially reluctant to relocate to Saudi Arabia, but after considering the wage offer and holding talks with Jurgen Klopp about his place in the Liverpool pecking order, a big decision was soon reached.

Liverpool have bolstered their midfield options this summer with the addition of Brigthon’s Aleix MacAllister and Red Bull Leipzig’s Dominik Szoboszlai, leaving Henderson out of the starting XI picture.

Problematically for the Reds, Fabinho is also expected to leave for the Saudi Pro League for a fee of £40 million, and there is also interest from Saudi clubs in Thiago and Luis Diaz.

Thiago’s future appears uncertain at the moment but reports say that Diaz is unlikely to leave Merseyside as he is only at the club eighteen months.

LGBTQ+ frustration.

Henderson’s decision to leave for Saudi Arabia has sparked anger in the football public as he was nominated as ‘Football Ally’ at the 2021 LGBTQ+ Awards yet is now moving to a country where homosexuality is illegal.

His decision is just one in a countless list of examples where modern athletes have betrayed moral principles to secure eye-watering wages from the Middle East.

And that trend does not look like slowing down any time soon.