We’ve all known it was going to happen for quite some time, but before departing on their far reaching pre-season tour, Liverpool have announced that vice-captain Jordan Henderson has been given the highest honour any Red can receive: he’s the club’s new captain.
“I’m absolutely delighted and proud. It is a great honour and a huge privilege to be named as the captain of this football club,” he said in an interview with the clubs official website. “When Steven [Gerrard] wasn’t in the team last season, I tried to do the best I could when I stepped in and took the armband. Now I’ll be looking to carry that on and continue to grow as a captain,” continued the skipper. “I’ll look to give my best all of the time, put the team firmly first and try to give them – or help them with – whatever they need from me.”
With long serving captain and club legend Steven Gerrard moving to Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of his contract, the Anfield outfit were left with the unenviable task of replacing a player that came to embody Liverpool as a whole. Although boss Brendan Rodgers stressed at the tail end of last season that he hadn’t made up his mind on who would replace the 35-year old, he now believes unequivocally that appointing Henderson is the right way to push the club forward.
“Jordan is someone who leads through example – through his actions, attitude and application. He shows total commitment to the game and is a role model professional,” explained the Northern Irishman. “He is also greatly respectful of the great traditions associated with being Liverpool captain and the responsibilities that come with it. He has been blessed to learn first-hand from one of the greatest the club has ever had, in Steven Gerrard,” he continued. “Jordan has grown as a person and as a player since arriving at Liverpool and is ready to take up this challenge. He will be his own person, with his own style of leadership and his own ideas and methods.”
