Virgil van Dijk (born 8 July 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team. Considered one of the best defenders in the world, Van Dijk is known for his strength, leadership and aerial ability. He is the only defender to win UEFA Men's Player of the Year, and has finished runner-up for the Ballon d'Or and Best FIFA Men's Player.
After beginning his professional career with Groningen, Van Dijk moved to Celtic in 2013. With Celtic he won the Scottish Premiership and was named in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year in both of his seasons with the club, and won the Scottish League Cup in the second. In 2015, he joined Southampton before signing for Liverpool in January 2018 for £75 million, a then-world-record transfer fee for a defender. With Liverpool, Van Dijk reached back-to-back UEFA Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the latter. He was also named PFA Players' Player of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season in his first full season. Van Dijk later won the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup, and helped end the club's 30-year league title drought by winning the 2019–20 Premier League.
Van Dijk represented the Netherlands at under-19 and under-21 levels. He made his senior international debut for the Netherlands in 2015 and assumed full captaincy of the national team in March 2018. The following year, Van Dijk captained the Netherlands to the final of the inaugural UEFA Nations League, where they finished runners-up.
Van Dijk is a physically strong, right-footed centre-back, who usually features on the left-hand side of central defence, although he can also play as a right-sided centre-back. He is gifted with pace, good technique, and an eye for goal, and is an effective set-piece taker. Regarding his ability, former Celtic teammate Kris Commons commented that Van Dijk was "comfortable on the ball", also noting that "He had good technique and a wonderful right foot. He was good on set-pieces, some of the free-kicks he scored for Celtic are absolute wonders. He could read the game well. He had an aura about him, a confidence, because I think he knew he was good."
Neil McGuinness, senior scout at Celtic when Van Dijk was signed, called him "everything you would want if you could create a profile of the ideal central defender", praising him as a "very smooth ball-playing defender" who possesses aerial prowess, skills from dead ball situations, and "strong leadership qualities", while commenting that since his move to England, he is "more tactically aware now [...] his anticipation and timing has improved and he is a lot more of an all-rounder". McGuinness believes Van Dijk's "biggest problem" is that he "can switch off when the game is comfortable". In 2018, Steve Douglas of The Globe and Mail described Van Dijk with the following words: "Powerful in the air, measured with the ball at his feet, quick, and with superb positional sense, van Dijk [sic] has it all." Dario Pergolizzi also described Van Dijk as a good marker in 2019.
In a 2019 interview with Marca, when Lionel Messi was asked why Van Dijk was so difficult to beat, the Argentine responded: "He is a defender who knows how to judge his timing and wait for the right moment to challenge or jockey [the attacker]. He is very fast and big, but he has a lot of agility for his height. He is fast because of its [sic] great stride, and he is impressive both in defence and attack because he scores lots of goals." That same year, Paul Merson described Van Dijk as "the best in the world, and I think by a long way, as a defensive centre-half."
In 2022, Erling Haaland named Van Dijk the best defender he has played against, calling him "fast, strong and 'bad' smart", as well as praising his timing.<\/P>","55115EEDFFE75225FD0E1787F70FC7CB":"2018-1-1","D21B7B52C3154356":"1","6F2A70628678CF42F2F15CA1EF3BF952":"","52D34B1F24A26AA271F2BD571AA0152C":"2","826BE2C466376227EC096659909FEBC6":"Southampton,Celtic,FC Groningen,Willem II","2E0C5ADB6636D43E":"195cm","0DC344593C67F298":"105955","3316B2DB0B85B0BE":"Virgil van Dijk","53F6A06F211D096A":"Liverpool","65809D335DC33AB4":"279","7850BFBCDDAACDE9":"Virgil van Dijk","57C2653B331A7DDA71EF0009D79DD15B8B218E4BC397458C":"1","71450CE0B6A0CA84C96E1AF31F3CA129":"1991-7-8","68B71F6A7FE5F18E":"92kg","156AB99B762676230C18DFFD85A3FAED":"
CLUB<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> Celtic<\/STRONG> Liverpool<\/STRONG> INDIVIDUAL<\/U><\/STRONG><\/P> PFA Players' Player of the Year:<\/STRONG>
Scottish Premiership: 2013–14, 2014–15
Scottish League Cup: 2014–15<\/P>
UEFA Champions League: 2018–19; runner-up: 2017–18, 2021-2022
UEFA Super Cup: 2019
FIFA Club World Cup: 2019
Premier League: 2019-20
FA Cup: 2021–22
EFL Cup: 2021–22
FA Community Shield: 2022
INTERNATIONAL<\/U><\/STRONG>
Netherlands
UEFA Nations League runner-up:<\/STRONG>
2018–19<\/P>
2018–19
PFA Team of the Year:<\/STRONG>
2018–19 Premier League, 2019–20 Premier League
PFA Player of the Month:<\/STRONG>
November 2018
Premier League Player of the Season:<\/STRONG>
2018–19
Premier League Player of the Month:<\/STRONG>
December 2018
UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award:
<\/STRONG>2018–19
UEFA Defender of the Season:
<\/STRONG>2018–19
UEFA Team of the Year:<\/STRONG>
2018, 2019, 2020
UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season:
<\/STRONG>2017–18, 2018–19, 2019-20
UEFA Nations League Finals Team of the Tournament:<\/STRONG>
2019
The Best FIFA Men's Player:<\/STRONG>
2019 (2nd place)
Liverpool Fans Player of the Season Award:<\/STRONG>
2018–19
Liverpool Players' Player of the Season Award:<\/STRONG>
2018–19
Southampton Player of the Season:<\/STRONG>
2015–16
PFA Scotland Team of the Year:<\/STRONG>
2013–14, 2014–15
Celtic FC Players' Player of the Year:<\/STRONG>
2013–14
Goal 50:<\/STRONG>
2018–19
FIFA FIFPro World11:<\/STRONG>
2019
IFFHS Men's World Team:<\/STRONG>
2019
Football Supporters' Federation Player of the Year:<\/STRONG>
2019
Ballon d'Or:<\/STRONG>
2019 (2nd place)
Alan Hardaker Trophy:<\/STRONG>
2022
UEFA Champions League Team of the Season:
<\/STRONG>2021–22
ESM Team of the Year<\/STRONG>:
2018–19, 2019–20, 2021–22<\/P>","32E266777F4D5C3EAAE5984CDAE82227":"Southampton","4EFF01CD2A1AA8474DF07D17EF0164A9":"Netherlands,Suriname","EB70E23140D61D3403104435C4316058":"4","57C2653B331A7DDA9BB5C336225EACEB":"32000000.00","e_index":4};