Jordan Henderson is set to travel to Amsterdam before the weekend to complete his move to Ajax having reached an agreement to leave Saudi Arabian club Al-Ettifaq.
All parties are currently ironing out the final details of the contract that will see the England midfielder join the Dutch giants, who are fifth in the Eredivisie having endured, by their standards, a disastrous season.
Ajax’s plight will not greatly bother Henderson. More than anything the 33-year-old will be relieved to be leaving Saudi Arabia after what has proven to be a controversial and, from a personal point of view, catastrophic move. Henderson received huge criticism for joining Al-Ettifaq in July following a highly successful 12-year spell at Liverpool given it meant emigrating to a country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death. Henderson had previously and publicly positioned himself as a champion of LGBTQ+ rights.
A large salary, believed to be in the region of £350,000 a week, was clearly his motivation for making the move, yet Henderson went out of his way to deny this was the case in an interview with the Athletic that, from a PR-point of view, could not have gone any worse.
Henderson has also failed to greatly impress at Al-Ettifaq, who are managed by another former Liverpool captain in Steven Gerrard and currently sit eighth in the Saudi Pro League. For league officials, his decision to force a move back to Europe represents a big blow to their ambitions of making Saudi Arabia a leading player in world football.
