With his prospects of making England’s Euro 2024 squad very much under threat, ex-Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is leaving Saudi Arabia. On Thursday, the free agent was due in Amsterdam to undergo a medical with Dutch giant Ajax and sign a two-and-a-half-year deal in a move that he hopes will revive his career.
When Henderson controversially left Anfield to join Al-Ettifaq last summer, he spoke about wanting to grow the Pro League under the tutelage of manager and former teammate Steven Gerrard. “It was all about what we could do together to achieve something special and build a club and build the league,” he told The Athletic.
Clearly, though, the club and the league have fallen well short of his expectations (the reverse may also be true, hence the willingness to cancel his contract). Al-Ettifaq is enduring a pretty miserable season, having dropped down to eighth in the table with just one win since the end of September. It’s far closer to the relegation zone (eight points), than it is the Asian Champions League qualification spots (a whopping 21 points).
The spending power Al-Ettifaq showcased in the summer by landing Henderson, fellow Liverpool legend Georginio Wijnaldum and former Lyon and Atletico Madrid and Moussa Dembélé has proven wildly disproportionate to the size of the club. Just 1,024 fans watched them play Al-Hazm in August, and even fewer (976) saw them win at Abha in September (via This is Anfield). While these are particularly extreme examples, it’s still true that the club’s average attendance is lower than 14 of the 24 clubs in League One (via The Athletic).
Watching on from afar, you wonder how much impact all of this will have on Mohamed Salah, who picked up an injury while playing at AFCON for Egypt yesterday. It’s hard to say how much a move to the Gulf appeals to the Liverpool winger, with his camp tight-lipped on interest from Al-Ittihad from the outset in August, perhaps deliberately so.
The Athletic’s David Ornstein has since relayed indications from some sources that Salah, whose Anfield contract expires in 18 months, wants to remain ‘at the top level of European football’, but equally he hasn’t taken the opportunity, whether through his notoriously outspoken agent Ramy Abass, a press briefing or simply an interview of his own, to definitively affirm his commitment to Liverpool.
We don’t know if Henderson and Salah have had, or will have, direct contact about the experience of playing in Saudi Arabia. But the Egyptian can’t be encouraged by the travails of his former teammates this season.
Yes, Sadio Mané appears to be enjoying life at Al-Nassr, scoring 12 goals in 26 matches for an Al-Nassr side that sits second in the table, but elsewhere, Fabinho’s Al-Ittihad, as we’ve previously covered, are underachieving significantly and have been rocked by internal dissent and the sacking of manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Roberto Firmino, the other member of the iconic front three, has failed to score in 16 league appearances for Al-Ahli since a debut hat-trick, prompting speculation about his future too.
Salah would, of course, expect to be far more prolific and draw crowds comparable to Mané’s Al-Nassr teammate Cristiano Ronaldo as the most famous Arab athlete in the world, but while it’s easy to say this from afar, you still get the sense that the league hasn’t been embraced as a spectacle either domestically or internationally to the extent that was expected. Salah will surely have noted that, and considered the possibility that he too may swiftly regret making the move.
Liverpool, then, will hope that Henderson’s swift exit has made an impression on its top scorer. Jürgen Klopp’s former skipper might just have inadvertently handed him his biggest boost yet as he tries to ward off Al-Ittihad and indeed any other Saudi club that may try and lure Salah away. As the time for a decision over Salah’s future and a potential new contract draws closer, Henderson’s struggles can surely only make the Egyptian remaining at Anfield more likely.
