{"id":172219,"date":"2025-11-09T23:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172219\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T23:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T23:32:10","slug":"jack-hendry-reflects-on-coming-on-leaps-and-bounds-since-leaving-celtic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/172219\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Hendry reflects on coming on ‘leaps and bounds’ since leaving Celtic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jack Hendry has massively rebuilt his reputation since leaving Celtic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arriving as a raw defender after an impressive six months at Dundee, Hendry<\/a> wasn\u2019t what Celtic needed him to be, and struggled in his performances.<\/p>\n

He eventually left for Melbourne City on loan, but picked up a serious injury at the beginning of his time in Australia. Belgium\u2019s KV Oostende eventually took a chance on him.<\/p>\n

After an exceptional season, he earned a big-money move to Club Brugge, and found himself a regular in Steve Clarke\u2019s<\/a> Scotland<\/a> side.<\/p>\n

Now playing for Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia, Hendry has reflected on his move away and how important it has been for his career.<\/p>\n

Jack Hendry on playing abroad since leaving Celtic<\/p>\n

Hendry also spent time at Cremonese in Serie A, where many Scots currently ply their trade.<\/p>\n

He now shares a dressing room with Gini Wijnaldum and Celtic<\/a> hero Moussa Dembele<\/a> in Saudi Arabia, where he was initially signed by Steven Gerrard.<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Hugh Keevins called out for \u2018glossing over\u2019 Reo Hatate incident from Celtic vs Rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AlPhoto by Abdul Ghani Bashir Issa\/MB Media\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Between that and 36 Scotland caps, a lot has changed since the days when he was unfancied at Celtic.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Herald<\/a> in reflection of his recent career, Hendry said: \u201cMy experiences, I can only speak positively of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think me leaving Scotland at an early age was a big commitment and I was probably one of the first lads to do so and obviously a lot of lads have followed suit. It only brings you on leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe different coaching you get, it really helps and you learn a lot about the game. Things that you haven\u2019t seen of the game beforehand being brought up in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can only help you as a player and obviously off the pitch it helps you grow up. With these lads getting these experiences it can only benefit the national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019ve always spoken about it, I\u2019ve touched on it, I think if anyone gets the opportunity to go abroad and have these types of experiences then I can only say that it should definitely be something that they should be taking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen once you do it you need to properly buy into it and grasp it because for sure it will only help your career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve embraced the country and the culture. I do really enjoy it out here [Saudi]. I\u2019ve had numerous offers since I\u2019ve been here and chosen to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy contract is up at the end of the season. They [Al-Ettifaq] are working behind the scenes to extend that or to put a proposal on the table that would make me stay longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ex-Celtic players to play in Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n

Hendry and Dembele are certainly an interesting duo at Al-Ettifaq, but they aren\u2019t the only ex-Celts to have been part of the recent Saudi boom.<\/p>\n

Jota moved to Al-Ittihad<\/a> in the same summer as N\u2019Golo Kante and Karim Benzema, and it\u2019s fair to say that his move there didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

Another ex-Hoops defender, Jason Denayer,<\/a> was most recently on the books at Al-Fateh and has also played in the UAE.<\/p>\n

Ex-Celtic managers Ange Postecoglou<\/a> and Brendan Rodgers<\/a> have both been linked with the job at Al-Ahli, but for now, those remain just rumours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Hendry has massively rebuilt his reputation since leaving Celtic. Arriving as a raw defender after an impressive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[20992,18,19,17,98286,98287,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-172219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-celtic","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jack-hendry","13":"tag-saudi-pro-league","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115522354786406753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}