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. He began his professional career with Groningen before joining Celtic in 2013. In 2015, he joined Southampton before signing for Liverpool in January 2018 for £75 million. 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. Van Dijk made his international debut for the Netherlands in 2015 and became captain of his country in 2018.
About Virgil van Dijk in brief
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. He began his professional career with Groningen before joining Celtic in 2013. In 2015, he joined Southampton before signing for Liverpool in January 2018 for £75 million, a world-record transfer fee at the time for a defender. 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. Van Dijk made his international debut for the Netherlands in 2015 and became captain of his country in 2018. In 2018, he scored his first international goal in a 3–0 win against Portugal. He was named in the PFA Scotland Team of The Year in both of his seasons with the club, also winning the Scottish League Cup in the latter. He 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. He suffered a personal setback during the campaign, however, as soon after his 20th birthday he was admitted to hospital with peritonitis and kidney poisoning. He revealed that he had been close to dying as a result of the medical emergency and that the hospital had even gone so far as to ask him to sign a sort of will in the event of his passing. He has been voted one of the best defenders in the world by the Football Writers’ Association of America.
He also won the UEFA Champions League with Liverpool in 2018 and 2019, and was named PFA Players’ player of the year in the Premier League in his first full season at the club. In 2013, he signed with Celtic for a fee of around 6 million euros, which included a 10% selling fee. In 2014, he moved to Ajax which elected not to sign him on a four-year deal. He made his debut for Groningen on 17 August 2011, replacing Efe Ambrose for the final 13 minutes of a 2–0 Scottish Premiership win over Ross County. On 9 November 2014, VanDijk scored his only goal of the season, heading one in each half of a 4–1 win over Ststone. In the same month, he made his first start for the club in a UEFA Europa League play-off match against ADO Den Haag. On 29 May, and against the same opposition, he score his first professional goals, netting twice in a 5-1 win in a play-offs match. He continued to impress the following season, and continued to be offered to a number of bigger Eredivisie clubs, including Ajax, but all of them chose not tosign him. In May 2011, he was scouted by former Dutch international Martin Koeman, who was working for FC Groningen. In 2010, he ended up completing a free transfer to Groningen in the same year. He played for Willem II’s reserve manager Edwin Hermans.
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