Saudi-based football agents were effectively deployed on a double mission last summer. Their job was not only to negotiate the best deal for their players, but to act as a de facto tourist board for the Gulf state.
Until Wednesday, Jordan Henderson looked like the biggest coup of all. Yet it was an ill-fated spell that lasted just six months and 19 games before Al-Ettifaq agreed to terminate his contract, paving the way for him to join Ajax.
Nobody was blindsided by the news that the former Liverpool captain was unhappy. Visibly struggling with temperatures of 35C, mopping his face with his shirt, and missing matches through illness, i has been told it was initially hoped he could be “persuaded to stay by his own performances” and that these were merely teething issues.
Along with Ettifaq manager Steven Gerrard, Henderson had chosen to live in Bahrain rather than Saudi Arabia itself. For overseas players arriving in the Pro League, there are still reservations about setting up camp in a deeply conservative state, where both the climate and culture can provide a shock to the uninitiated.
“During the winter, it’s lovely, but during summer it’s different – it gets very hot,” one agent, who works predominantly in Saudi football, tells i.
“Many ex-pats do live in Bahrain, it is a 30-minute drive from the club. It is a different atmosphere, alcohol is OK. So it’s possible to drive, or to have two places [one in Bahrain and another in Saudi], that’s also doable.”
It is understood Saudi clubs have tried to help the likes of Henderson settle by following the example of the Premier League, where players from overseas are assisted with finding housing and schools for their children. English is at least widely spoken in Bahrain, nicknamed the “pearl of the Arabian Gulf” and there are British schools used by high-profile ex-pats, of which there are an estimated 11,000 Brits.
Players tend to live in gated compounds, also opting for Bahrain because it has traditionally been more culturally open – while it is something of a myth that tourists only visit for the “booze cruise” element, there are more activities for young families. Saudi Arabia only lifted a ban on cinema in 2018.
It was seen as important that Henderson (the Pro League’s first England international and only its second British player after Scotsman Jack Hendry) would become an advert for Saudi’s emerging football landscape. The wages were impressive, though not as eye-watering as the sums originally reported, with Henderson thought to be earning closer to £350,000-a-week than the rumoured £700,000. He initially engaged, with a series of carefully constructed PR posts on Twitter/X. The account has largely been silent since September.
After attracting a series of A-listers, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane and N’Golo Kante among them, the next phase was for Saudi Arabia to start building up its stores of other notable, if more run-of-the-mill players, particularly in the second and third tiers. However, that was on the basis that those who joined would stay for two to three years, rather than six months. Karim Benzema is also reportedly unhappy at Al-Ittihad and Neymar has had an especially rough ride after tearing his ACL just three games into his spell with Al Hilal.
Henderson’s Ettifaq have also been floundering in the league. With Gerrard at the helm, many have interpreted that as another indictment of England’s “Golden Generation” coaches – but the club are competing with four state-owned teams, Al-Ittihad, Al-Nassr, Al-Ahli and Al Hilal, who are financed by the vast riches of the Public Investment Fund (who also own Newcastle).
Comparisons have already been drawn with the failed Chinese Super League – though it has been a lucrative year for some. Payments to football agents were at a record high £700m last year, thanks in part to the Saudi spree. It is not quite a sixth major league – in addition to the “Big Five” of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – but the Pro League is now a major consideration in the market.
There is a sense that football has genuine potential to grow in a nation of football lovers. If anything, though, the crowds watching Henderson got smaller and smaller as the season went on, with just 696 attending Ettifaq vs Al-Riyadh.
That did little for the Henderson brand, already tarnished by the perception that in moving to a country where homosexuality is illegal, he had abandoned the LGBT+ community for whom he had once been seen as an ambassador. Gareth Southgate refused to condemn him but insisted Henderson’s selection going forward would be influenced by the standard of the league in which he was playing.
Euro 2024 is now just six months away and Henderson evidently remains a part of England’s plans, starting three of their six internationals since his move and coming off the bench in one more.
Ajax is a chance both to recover his reputation and remain in Southgate’s thinking. Even if both are possible, it is hard to see his Saudi venture as anything other than a catastrophic move.
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