The club posted it, and that was that
A post on Al-Ittihad’s account, a few words in Arabic, a photo. Georginio Wijnaldum is now officially an Al-Ittihad player after the Jeddah club confirmed the deal on Monday morning. A one-year contract, with an option for another season.
He is 35 and had been without a club since leaving Al-Ettifaq this summer. Now he gets another run at the Saudi Pro League.
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Seventeen goals. From midfield.
That was the number that set this in motion. Seventeen goals and seven assists in 34 matches last season with Al-Ettifaq. For a 34-year-old midfielder, that does not look like the quiet slide into retirement in the sun. It looks like a player who is still delivering.
Plenty noticed. Real Salt Lake had talks earlier in the summer in an attempt to lure him to MLS. Chelsea also checked on him late in the window, according to Foot Mercato, before backing off. Wijnaldum opted to stay where he was producing. At Al-Ittihad, he will link up with fellow Dutchman Steven Bergwijn.
Anfield, Paris, then the Gulf
People forget quickly. Wijnaldum was a mainstay in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side for five seasons, the sort of player who covered every blade of grass without ever grabbing the headlines. He won the Champions League and the Premier League there. His volley and header against Barcelona in 2019, only minutes apart, remain two of the defining moments of Anfield’s modern era.
Then came Paris in 2021, where it never really clicked. A loan spell at AS Roma followed in a bid to get his career moving again. And from 2023, Saudi Arabia, where he found a central role and numbers Europe was no longer giving him.
Al-Ittihad, meanwhile, keeps shopping in the market for European internationals on the way down. The gamble is a short one: one year, plus an option. Wijnaldum has to make sure they take it up.
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