Finally, the Saudi giants left the team after six months of service and joined the Champions League quadruple winners
Although it is now 2024, looking back on the world football in 2023, it is definitely exciting and full of topics, including Manchester City winning the treble to start the dynasty, Messi winning the Ballon d'Or for the eighth time, Musiala helping Bayern overtake Dort to win the championship and other popular events. Of course, the most talked-about event is undoubtedly a number of top stars who have left to play in the Saudi league
In the winter window last year, Cristiano Ronaldo bid farewell to Manchester United and moved to Riyadh Victory, but just six months later, Neymar, Benzema, Kante, Mane, Mahrez, Firmino, Henderson, Carrasco, Milinkovic, Ruben Neves, Brozovic, Fabinho, Kessie, Laporte and many other top stars who play in European giants have gone to play in the Saudi league. Among them, there are accomplished veterans, as well as stars in their playing years, and the stars shine far more than the former Russian Premier League, the Chinese Super League and the current Major League of the United States
Of course, the extremely generous salary package is one of the important advantages of Saudi Arabia in recruiting stars. Riyadh Crescent spent 90 million euros in transfer fees and offered an annual salary of 150 million US dollars to get Brazilian superstar Neymar, Riyadh Victory signed Portuguese king Cristiano Ronaldo with the highest annual salary of 200 million US dollars in sports history, and other players who left Europe to join Saudi Arabia are also paid much higher than the remuneration they receive in the European giants. However, just half a year after the "gold rush" to Saudi Arabia, some players could not stay
Recently, according to Dutch media VI reports, former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has been very close to reaching an agreement on personal terms with the Eredivisie giants and Champions League quadruple champion Ajax, and Ajax's follow-up work is to negotiate with Henderson's current club Dammam. Ajax boss Van Tesquipp also confirmed in an interview that the club is in talks with Henderson about a transfer, saying that the deal is no longer a secret and that others can benefit from it
The 33-year-old plays as a midfielder, having started his career in the academy with Sunderland, before making his mark in the senior squad. In July 2011, Premier League giants Liverpool threw an olive branch to Henderson and spent 18 million euros to sign Henderson, who was only 21 years old at the time. Of course, Henderson can't compare with Gerrard in terms of strength, but he made 492 appearances in 12 seasons at Liverpool and led the team to win the Premier League and Champions League as captain, which can be said to be one of Liverpool's famous names
After joining the Saudi giants Dammam for 14 million euros in the summer window of 23, Henderson made 19 appearances and contributed 5 assists in half a season, but Henderson, who was difficult to adapt to the Saudi environment and life, has always wanted to return to Europe, and once had scandals with Bayern, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and other teams, but in the end Ajax became Henderson's first choice to return to Europe. Of course, Dammam do not want to let go of the central midfielder, and manager Steven Gerrard is also trying to keep Henderson, but as things stand, it seems that Henderson's move to Ajax will be a difficult fact to reverse, and Ajax, who have not played well this season, also hope that Henderson can help the team find form as soon as possible