Why Jordan Henderson is one of Sunderland's greatest sons

Sunderland AFC trousered £20million and some commentators, including this one, wrote that his new employers had overpaid. He proved them all wrong with sheer hard work.

His runner-up place as BBC Sports Personality of the Year confirms that, as a son of this city, he deserves to be exalted. Up there with Dave Stewart, James Herriot, Kate Adie and definitely any sporting figure. But this isn’t all about football.

Even football haters concede that the man is a credit to his family, school, sport, country and above all (as far as we’re concerned), the city of Sunderland.

Henderson is now world famous; for all the right reasons. He has lifted Champions League and Premier League trophies and played in a World Cup semi-final.

But there’s more to the man than that. The images of him embracing his dad Brian immediately after winning the Champions League, all the more poignant after Brian’s successful fight with throat cancer, became instantly iconic.

We regularly hear about wealthy footballers with “more money than sense”. Not only is this often true, in some cases it can be achieved with about £3.50.

But Henderson, for all his millions, isn’t like that. In April he headed talks about Premier League players giving money to a Covid-stricken NHS. More recently he helped a young spina bifida sufferer in Southwick by donating his England boots.

There’s much more, but he doesn’t virtue signal. Nosey Echo journalists find it out, although we suspect not all of it.

All this and a family man too. It makes you sick. But despite making us unremarkable slobs look bad, we forgive him. We’ll even overlook those ruddy awful adverts he made for Nivea.

For what it’s worth, I am otherwise wholly indifferent to Liverpool FC. It’s a shame Henderson had to leave Sunderland to achieve what he has. He’s unlikely to see the error of his ways and return any time soon. Be realistic.

Nevertheless, it was the city he loves which made him. Be proud. He should have won SPOTY instead of … never mind.

The tone of this week’s column is uncharacteristically generous. But it’s Christmas. And it’s Jordan Henderson.

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