Jordan Henderson is celebrating his 30th birthday today.
Liverpool’s captain has been at the club since 2011 and is the favourite to win the Premier League Player of the Year award following his brilliant performances before the lockdown.
But there have been plenty of points during Henderson’s career that he’s been written off.
Sir Alex Ferguson famously claimed he turned down the option to sign Hendo before of his running style, which would lead to injuries later in his career.
“We looked at Jordan Henderson a lot and Steve Bruce was unfailingly enthusiastic about him,” the 13-time Premier League champion explained in his 2013 autobiography, cited in the Mirror.
“Against that we noticed that Henderson runs from his knees, with a straight back, while the modern footballer runs from his hips. We thought his gait might cause him problems later in his career.”
With 359 appearances for Liverpool, we’re not sure this has been too much of a debilitating issue.
And when Henderson lifted the Champions League in 2019, he confirmed his legendary status forever, anyway.
Now, we think he’s going to enjoy the best years of his career. His role for the team is defined either as the box-to-box man on the right of the central three or the holding player – and he thrives in both.
Jurgen Klopp trusts Hendo implicitly and we hope our skipper remains an integral part of the German’s plans for the next four years of his contract.