Saudi Arabian Pro League side, Al-Ettifaq has named former Liverpool midfielder, Steven Gerrard its new manager on a two year contract.
Last season, Al-Ettifaq finished seventh in the 16-team Saudi Pro League, trailing 35 points behind champions Al-Ittihad.
The 43-year-old ex England international who retired from professional football in 2016, had said last June he had been invited to a country to “look at a potential offer” but, would not take it.
Club Chairman, Khalid Al-Dabal said “without doubt, Gerrard’s presence will be an addition and a quantum leap to our league”.
Gerrard who has been out of work since being sacked as Aston Villa manager last October, joins the trend of European based players moving to the Saudi Pro League, following a summer of heavy investment by Pro League clubs in Saudi Arabia.
Former Chelsea trio, N’Golo Kante, Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy, ex Real Madrid striker, Karim Benzema, former Wolves midfielder, Ruben Neves are among those to have recently moved to Saudi Arabia, with Inter Milan’s Marcelo Brozovic to Al-Nassr the most recently completed deal.
The trend underlines the league’s ambition to be one of the top five in the world and follows a decision in June by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns Newcastle United, to take over four leading clubs in the country. Al-Ettifaq is not one of those clubs.
Gerrard’s first managerial role was at Scottish club, Rangers.
He took over the Ibrox side in 2018 and led the club to their first Scottish Premiership title in 10 years in 2020-21.
He went on to become Aston Villa boss in November 2021 but, left after 13 wins from 40 games.