diff --git a/client/src/main/java/org/asynchttpclient/netty/ssl/DefaultSslEngineFactory.java b/client/src/main/java/org/asynchttpclient/netty/ssl/DefaultSslEngineFactory.java
index 401c60a581..f2b80bf37e 100644
--- a/client/src/main/java/org/asynchttpclient/netty/ssl/DefaultSslEngineFactory.java
+++ b/client/src/main/java/org/asynchttpclient/netty/ssl/DefaultSslEngineFactory.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ public class DefaultSslEngineFactory extends SslEngineFactoryBase {
 
   private SslContext buildSslContext(AsyncHttpClientConfig config) throws SSLException {
     if (config.getSslContext() != null) {
+      ReferenceCountUtil.retain(config.getSslContext());
       return config.getSslContext();
     }