Jordan Henderson is set to become the latest high-profile veteran to join the rapidly burgeoning Saudi Arabian Professional league. The 33-year-old Liverpool and England player is reportedly close to inking a deal to join Al-Ettifaq, where he would rejoin his one-time teammate Steven Gerrard, who is coaching the club. The wages are mind boggling, even by the standards of professional football: a reported £700,000 a week, quadruple his current salary.
Henderson is still a top player, if not in then surely not far off his prime and he would be one the most significant catches yet in the Saudi’s global talent trawl. He’d also surely be the wokest. Henderson is an LGTBTQ ally and is believed to have been one of the most supportive members of the knee-taking, rainbow laces and one-love armbands of the England squad. A sort of virtue-signaler in chief for Gareth Southgate’s woke warriors, he was even nominated for a special ‘football ally’ honour at the British LGBT+ awards in 2021. A
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