Jordan Henderson waited for the Liverpool team and staff to return from Germany before bidding farewell before moving on to Al-Ettifaq, according to Jurgen Klopp.
Due to negotiations about a trade with the Saudi Pro League team, the Reds captain, 33, missed the majority of the club’s preseason tour. Steven Gerrard, a former Liverpool player and current Al-Ettifaq head coach, spearheaded the $12.2 million deal, which was formally announced on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, Henderson gave Reds supporters a heartfelt farewell video. The England star, though, approached his teammates and the rest of the Liverpool staff in a different way.
Speaking to https://soccerhuz.com/?p=3657&preview=true, Klopp said of Henderson and his farewell: “In the moment, it is absolutely fine but it was already ongoing for a while now, so we had time to adapt to it and get used to it. It is football, it is life, it is normal, these kind of things happen.
“Monday when we arrived back in Liverpool, Hendo was waiting for us to say goodbye properly to the team and to the coaching staff as well, so that was a really nice gesture – a really nice thing to do. I know it was a really, really tough decision for Hendo and I was around or with him all the way.
Since he is the only captain I ever had at Liverpool, it is sad and unusual, but I also believe it to be thrilling for him. It goes without saying that we shall miss him both as a player and as a guy. But that’s football, as I said.
Given his prior support for the LGBT+ community, Henderson has come under fire for his plan to move to Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, being gay or transgender is still prohibited.
“I know, and it is always like this in life, people will only truly appreciate him after he has left,” Klopp continued. It is as it is. I believe that over the years, some people did not show him the full respect or admiration he would have earned.
“Now he leaves, in my opinion, not on the highest high because, clearly, last season was not fantastic, but [he is] departing on a high, and I think that’s excellent.
“Jordan Henderson was the captain of [our] most successful squad up to that point – I hope we can create another one – and the skipper of the first Premier League title winners and all these in the future when people are looking back then,”
