This summer, Gini Wijnaldum will join Al Ettifaq as the third ex-Liverpool player to do so.
In July, the Saudi Pro League named Steven Gerrard as their new manager. The legendary Reds player soon made his way back to his former team to sign Jordan Henderson, his first significant acquisition.
The club captain and the longest-tenured player for Liverpool made the unusual and contentious decision to join Gerrard in the Saudi city of Dammam last month in a £12 million agreement, apparently agreeing to a £350k weekly salary.
At Gerrard’s team, which finished eighth in the Saudi Pro League last season, Henderson, 33, was instantly named captain and given the number ten shirt.
With the impending arrival of Wijnaldum, who had been frozen out at Paris Saint-Germain, Al Ettifaq are now close to acquiring their third Liverpool favorite.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Al Ettifaq will pay PSG “in excess of €9m” to sign the Dutch midfielder to a three-year contract.
This summer, upon his return to Paris, he was placed on the transfer list and supposedly forced to practice separately from the rest of the team with a group known as “the undesirables,” which also featured Mauro Icardi and Julian Draxler.
Along with Gerrard and Henderson, Wijnaldum will play football in Saudi Arabia alongside former Reds talents Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, and Sadio Mane. This means that five of the Reds starting XI from the 2019 Champions League will now do so.
