Revealed: How Jordan Henderson's friend saved him huge embarrassment of asking for Ajax No.14 shirt - that all players are banned from taking - as he uses Google to check

On Thursday Ajax completed the signing of ex-Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson after his contract with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq was terminated by mutual consent. The 33-year-old has penned a two-and-a-half-year deal with the Dutch giants, but he almost got himself into a spot of bother when it came to choosing a squad number. Henderson wore the No.14 shirt for Liverpool, but his friend reminded him that Ajax have retired that shirt in honour of Johan Cruyff.

During his first press conference as an Ajax player, Henderson said: "When I knew it could be happening [the move to Ajax] I was looking at the squad numbers to see what was available and I saw that 14 wasn't available. Initially I thought 'ooh, it's free' so I was speaking to my friend and as I was speaking I was like: 'I'm sure that's Cruyff's number'. Then he's gone: 'is it not retired?'. I've gone 'I think it might be'. Then we Googled it, [saw it was] retired, and it made sense.

"I was getting excited for a little bit, I thought it was meant to be but it quickly changed. Obviously that makes total sense. I'm not bothered about numbers, 14 was a big number for me at Liverpool but I've had different numbers throughout my career when I was at Sunderland and Coventry. It wasn't a big thing for me and I think the club wanted me to have No.6 and that fit perfectly. My son's birthday is on the 6th and my father when he played when he was younger said he was No.6 so that's nice as well."

Henderson has joined Ajax just six months after he left Anfield for Saudi Arabia. The midfielder failed to settle at Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq, and has taken a huge pay cut to return to Europe. His departure is a blow for the Saudi Pro League and damaging to Henderson's reputation.

Henderson could make his Ajax debut on Sunday when the Dutch giants welcome RKC Waalwijk to the Johan Cruyff Arena. Ajax have endured a tough season and currently find themselves fifth in the Eredivisie table, 23 points behind runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven.