Why Jordan Henderson is looking to get out of Saudi Pro League

Just 133 people turned up for a match between Al-Riyadh and Al Okhdood in the Saudi Pro League, triggering reevaluations in the footballing world about the league’s potential. Last year, Cristiano Ronaldo had said that he thinks that the Saudi Pro League can be one of the top five leagues in the world. Six months on, that statement doesn’t seem to hold up.

Despite the influx of huge names like Neymar and Karim Benzema, a shocking number of matches have seen a plummet in attendance.

The league which was the toast of town during the last summer transfer window, splurging £750million to bring a lot of big names into its fold, seems to have lost a lot of its aura as the year progressed. And now, there are whispers blowing in the wind that some of the players who had opted to go on this Middle-Eastern adventure are looking to end it prematurely.

The chief name among them is Jordan Henderson who signed for Al-Ettifaq last year after a controversial switch from Liverpool. Reportedly disillusioned by the significant drop in quality from his Anfield days, the former Liverpool captain is keen to return to the hallowed grounds he once called home. But it’ll not be easy with many fans unhappy with him for making the switch in the first place. Some even booed him on his return in England colours against Australia at Wembley last October.

Henderson’s move to the Gulf state has probably hampered his reputation well beyond fixing. A vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, his decision to play in a country where homosexuality is illegal, felt hypocritical to a lot of people, with the backlash being swift and severe.

Even though he has repeatedly said that money was not the driving factor behind the move, there seems to be few takers to