Liverpool great Jordan Henderson heads to Saudi Arabia to join Al Ettifaq

LIVERPOOL, England (AP) _ Weeks after luring Liverpool nice Steven Gerrard to affix as supervisor, Saudi Arabian soccer membership Al-Ettifaq signed Jordan Henderson on Thursday.

The England worldwide, who was captain of Liverpool when the membership received the Premier League and Champions League titles, is the the most recent star to go to the oil-rich kingdom. He will reportedly earn 700,000 kilos ($900,000) per week.

“Liverpool Football Club can confirm Jordan Henderson has completed a transfer to Al-Ettifaq,” the group mentioned in an announcement. “The move to the Saudi Pro League side sees the midfielder bring an end to his 12-year Reds career, during which he lifted eight trophies, all but one of which as club captain.”

The Saudi league has focused a slew of main gamers from Europe as a part of an bold recruitment to boost the profile of soccer within the nation. Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Al-Nassr in December and has been adopted by stars like Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Roberto Firmino through the offseason.

Henderson received each main membership honor throughout his time at Liverpool, together with the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title a yr later. He nonetheless had two years to run on his present contract, however his transfer comes as Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp overhauls his midfield.

“We will miss you, you know that. You will miss us, I know that,” Klopp mentioned in a video posted on-line. “But it’s life, and it’s not forever. It’s just a goodbye.”

James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have all left the membership, whereas Fabio Carvalho has joined Leipzig on a season-long mortgage.

Liverpool has signed Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai through the switch window and is anticipated so as to add one other midfielder forward of the brand new season.

Klopp’s midfield revamp comes after the membership endured a disappointing marketing campaign final season, which noticed it miss out on the Champions League for the primary time in seven years and fail to win a trophy.

Saudi Arabia has sought lately to purchase its means into worldwide sports activities. Besides Ronaldo, whose contract reportedly earns him as much as $200 million a yr, Saudi-funded LIV Golf has shaken up skilled golf.

The strikes are a part of efforts by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to leverage the dominion’s oil wealth to offer new jobs and alternatives for Saudi Arabia’s youth. However, critics have dismissed the efforts as “sportswashing,” making an attempt to leverage skilled sports activities to wash up the dominion’s picture because it stays one of many world’s high executioners and waging a yearslong struggle in Yemen.

U.S. intelligence businesses additionally imagine Prince Mohammed ordered the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.