"I am not going to lie over the past couple of years I have had some tough moments, Henderson says. But according to him, it was not so much what he lived, rather what he left behind that was the struggle. It felt like a break-up, Henderson says of the end of his 12year association with Liverpool, a period when he captained them to every top honour and embedded himself in the fabric of the club and city."
"I couldn't watch a lot of Premier League games and I certainly couldn't watch Liverpool. I probably picked the right place for that because I was halfway around the world! Because I was at Liverpool for so long and had such an attachment, I found it really difficult when I left. If you asked a lot of players when they left a club where they had been for so long not just Liverpool I think they'd say it was hard."
"Because goodness knows, if the move to Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia seemed like a bad idea, the reality was even worse. Henderson's reputation was trashed after he was accused of putting financial gain before his support of LGBTQ+ rights. He was booed on England duty by the Wembley crowd. Even after jumping back to Ajax in January 2024, it felt as if the collateral damage continued."
Jordan Henderson moved to Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia in summer 2023 and faced intense criticism and reputational damage after being accused of prioritising financial gain over his support for LGBTQ+ rights. He was booed by the Wembley crowd while on England duty. He left Al-Ettifaq for Ajax in January 2024 and later joined Brentford, but the fallout continued with Gareth Southgate omitting him from the Euro 2024 squad despite involvement in qualification, triggering a prolonged international exile. Henderson describes his departure from Liverpool after 12 years as a painful break-up and felt an emptiness that made watching the club difficult.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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