Hailing from a city in Southern Netherlands, Breda, who would have thought that Virgil Van Dijk would be making such headlines in the world of football? What shook the whole world is probably the amount that Premier League side, Liverpool paid to secure him from Southampton in 2015.
Born on 8 July 1991, Van Dijk is a Dutch professional footballer that currently plays for Premier League side, Liverpool and captains the Netherlands national team.
The big Dutchman started his footballing career with Groningen before moving to Celtic in 2013, where he also won the Scottish Premiership and was named in PFA Scotland Team of the Year. Van Dijk's dynamic physical and tactical approach to his game caught global attention and Southampton was first to react as he made the move in late September 2015 before signing for Liverpool in January 2018, for a staggering record transfer of 75 million pounds! And that's a a record transfer for a defender.
Questions were raised over the massive buy and whether will the big Dutchman live up to the expectations, and guess what, he wiped out all critics and is now one of the most promising, deadly and probably the best DEFENDER the world has ever seen!
In his first full debut with Liverpool, Van Dijk won PFA Player of the Year Award and was named Premier Player of the Year Season for the 2018-2019 season. Van Dijk played his first ever Champions League Final when Liverpool squared off against Real Madrid in the 2018 Final in Kiev. The Spanish side came out favorite winners in what happened to be a disastrous final for the Reds after losing their talisman forward, Mo Salah in the early stages of the game.
After the agonizing defeat that tailed along with several catastrophic mistakes, Van Dijk and team brought the A Game on when they enjoyed an unbelievably amazing 2018-2019 season. Van Dijk's contribution in Liverpool's success of reaching back-to-back consecutive Champions League final was huge and it was no surprise when he not only won the CL medal with the Reds, but also bagged Man of the Match award! A true BEAST at sight!
It was close to being a double joy for the Reds as they were seeking for the first PL trophy after almost 30 years, but it was cut short by a single point victory by the Citizens, Manchester City.
Van Dijk made his international debut in 2015 and was fast to be appointed as the team's captain in 2018. Now, for any player to make such an instant impact and be promoted to captaincy level, is extremely extraordinary! Van Dijk is a deserving captain and a perfect example of a captain material.
Years after Liverpool saw inspirational defenders hang their boots with the likes of Jamie Carragher, Samy Hypia, Daniel Agger, Steve Finnan and others, the back four was in great amount of trouble. This was simply because the team lacked leadership at the back and no one really stepped up.
Then, Van Dijk happened and everything changed and now we are considered as the team with the best back four! Van Dijk is not alone, he has 3-4 others that equally contributes to the success that Liverpool is currently enjoying.
Trent-Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson make up such a mind-blowing combo and it is evident in all the games that they've starred together all season. Trent and Andy has filled up the missing puzzle all this while for Liverpool from breathtaking crosses, quickness of reacting to difficult situations, pitch perfect passes, speed and most importantly, timely tackles!
On the other side, Van Dijk is often paired with Matip has shown great potential and due to Gomez's fitness issues, he has been the perfect replacement.
Just like what Klopp said during the post-interview session after the heroic victory over Spurs at the Champions League final, "This is just the beginning to many more successes to come for Liverpool."
YNWA
