Former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson is reportedly ready to accept a huge pay cut upon leaving Al Ettifaq for a surprise January move to Ajax.
The England international only left Liverpool for Saudi Arabia in the summer, but it seems he’s now set to make a speedy exit and return to playing in Europe.
According to talkSPORT, the move looks like a pretty costly one to Henderson, who will see a pay cut of as much as 75% upon terminating his contract with Al Ettifaq and joining Ajax.
Ajax’s move for Henderson is a bit of a surprise as they so often tend to focus on developing young players rather than signing big names from abroad, but it seems they’re willing to make an exception here for this proven and experienced leader.
Henderson was a fine player for many years at Liverpool and it will be interesting to see what kind of impact he has at Ajax now, and if it helps the 33-year-old keep his place in Gareth Southgate’s plans ahead of Euro 2024 this summer.
All in all, however, Henderson doesn’t come away from this looking great, having angered a lot of people in the LGBTQ+ community when he moved to Saudi in the first place after previously being a vocal ally.
Henderson defended his move but talkSPORT note that he convinced Al Ettifaq to let him go after direct talks making it clear just how much he wanted to leave.