Moussa Dembele’s long-anticipated reunion with Brendan Rodgers in Saudi Arabia lived up to expectations.
In the Eastern Derby between Al-Ettifaq and Al-Qadsiah, the duo faced each other over seven years after the striker’s social media outburst at his then-manager.
Keen to make a £20 million transfer to Lyon, a 22-year-old Dembele accused Rodgers of failing to honor promises that Celtic wouldn’t obstruct his exit.
This prompted several social media posts by the Frenchman, saying “a real man keeps his word” and “be careful who you call your leader”, directed at the Parkhead supporters.
Moussa Dembele and Jack Hendry score against ex-Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers in Saudi Arabia
Rodgers’ team took the lead through Julian Quinones, but wing-back Mohammed Abu Al-Shamata was dismissed for a reckless incident shortly afterward.
Then, either side of the interval, Jack Hendry and Dembele’s goals against their former manager turned the match around.
Both were well-executed headers by players recruited by Rodgers in Glasgow. Hendry’s was his first goal in Saudi football.
A penalty by ex-Liverpool, Roma and PSG midfielder Gini Wijnaldum made it 3-1 to Al-Ettifaq, but Quinones set up a dramatic finish by scoring again.
Remarkably, Al-Qadsiah then netted an equaliser in what seemed the final moments of the match. However, VAR intervened and ruled a foul by Gaston Alvarez, resulting in his sending off and the goal being annulled.
It was an intense conclusion to a fiercely contested match which marked Rodgers’ first defeat since moving to the Middle East in December.
They now appear largely out of the title race, ten points behind league leaders Al-Nassr.
Hendry and Dembele were signed by Al-Ettifaq in the same summer, nearly three years ago, by ex-Rangers manager Steven Gerrard.
They were controversially joined by Jordan Henderson, who lasted just six months in Saudi before quitting his lucrative contract to join Ajax.
What Brendan Rodgers said about fall-out with Moussa Dembele at Celtic
At the time, Rodgers said when asked about the situation with Dembele: “The whole episode was disappointing – and I’ll say a bit on it and then that will be it then, because it’s been a bit one-way.
“I had a really close relationship with Moussa. I enticed him to come here, with a plan going forward.
“He was desperate for the move, of course, but we wanted to try and keep him because we didn’t have another option.
“But then there was a line that was overstepped, from a behaviour perspective, and I’ve been in these situations enough times to know if you can pull it back or not. And, like I said, I needed to speak to Moussa – and I had a number of my senior staff with me.
“I just asked him; can you tell me and the guys in the room that you received promises from me, or any member of Celtic? And quite clearly and categorically he said ‘no’.
“So, once he said that, that was fine then, I said ‘you can now go, if you can get the move’.
“There is a lot of integrity here within our staff and with our team and how we work. I understand the model here at Celtic, with these talents coming in.
“You develop them and then you move them on. But there was a lot of stuff that was said that was not so nice and, ironically, not true.