The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

Hello good afternoon sports fans, I hope you’re well. I hope you’re looking after yourselves and are in good health. We need to talk about an issue that has arisen in the football world, but it needs to be discussed on a wider level, it’s what I am going to call homesickness.

If you are not aware, it’s emerged and is being covered by many respected sports journalists that former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, who left the Reds to join Saudi Al-Ettifaq, wants to return to Europe, just half a season into his lucrative deal.

Although not 100% confirmed, it’s understood that there is some substance to this story. Fans and some journalists are criticising the former Sunderland man because he said he wanted to move to The Middle East to make a difference, but now he wants to upsticks.

Sports fans, for a society that harps on a lot about mental health, I find such an attitude extraordinary. The attitude to mock someone who wants to move to familiar surroundings.

In the life of a footballer, he/she can move from pillar to post almost, which won’t be easy. Cry me a river you might say, but the challenge isn’t easy to move somewhere new.

To adapt to the surroundings, the culture/the life and the food, for example, must have its challenges. This point of settling into a new environment is a valid one, here in this article I want to give a few examples where players struggled to adapt to a new environment.

Manchester City’s former forward Nolito and Robinho were arguably two players who didn’t have the best time of it when trying to settle in England. Former Celta Vigo attacker Nolito said his daughter has issues settling into an English school.

For unfortunate reasons, ex-Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria was another who didn’t find it easy to settle in England (his house got broken into).

Former Liverpool striker Robbie Keane was another example. The former Spurs captain was moving from one city to another, but that proved a tough challenge for the former Inter Milan forward.

Despite being one of the best strikers in the history of Serie A, AC Milan legend Andriy Shevchenko had issues adapting to life at Premier League giants Chelsea. In the case of the Scheva, he would of course head back to the Rossoneri in an initial loan deal.

The last example I can think of is of former Barcelona and Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez, who was part of a swap deal that saw him leave Arsenal to join Manchester United.

Well, in honesty, this example may be the best as these examples I have used aren’t examples of players struggling to adapt to new surroundings due to professional reasons.

As you can see I have given many examples of players who have struggled with transfers and having to adapt to different surroundings, so it’s fair to say, people should get off Jordan Henderson’s back.

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