NewsLiverpool's Greatest - No.8: Virgil van Dijk
Years: 2018-present
Appearances: 374
Goals: 36
Trophies: Champions League (2019), UEFA Super Cup (2019), FIFA Club World Cup (2019), Premier League (2019-20, 2024-25), League Cup (2022, 2024), FA Cup (2022)
Virgil van Dijk’s commanding performances have underpinned Liverpool’s modern successes and established the Dutchman as one of the club’s greatest players.
Signed from Southampton in January 2018 for a fee in the region of £75m, the defender was a transformative addition to the team being built by Jürgen Klopp.
His transfer to the Reds was famously revealed via a picture of Van Dijk holding an LFC shirt in front of a Christmas tree – and what a gift he proved to be.
The tone for his career at Anfield was set in his first appearance, with the new No.4 scoring a winning header in front of the Kop to decide a Merseyside derby in the FA Cup.
Strong, calm, aerially dominant, quick, graceful and skilled in passing long or short, Van Dijk offered the complete package as a modern central defender.
He helped Liverpool reach the Champions League final during his initial half-season and though it ended in defeat by Real Madrid, the experience was a stepping stone to greatness.
Van Dijk played in every league game during 2018-19 as Klopp’s men totalled 97 points but were denied the title by Manchester City in a major tussle.
Ample consolation awaited in Madrid on June 1, 2019 as the Reds defeated Tottenham Hotspur to lift their sixth European Cup – Van Dijk having produced a vital headed goal at Bayern Munich in the knockouts.
‘Imperious’ had become his par.
That sensational standard was acknowledged by being voted PFA Players’ Player of the Year and earning a remarkable second-placed finish in that year’s Ballon d’Or, missing out on the accolade marginally to Lionel Messi.
Van Dijk was again ever-present in the Premier League across a 2019-20 campaign prolonged by, and completed amid, the COVID-19 pandemic. It ended with Liverpool on 99 points and champions for the first time in three decades.
The absence of Van Dijk was hugely felt in the next term, with an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained at Goodison Park in October 2020 ruling him out for the rest of the campaign.
In a testament to the Netherlands international’s drive and determination, he returned to the pitch as good as ever, featuring 51 times in 2021-22 as part of a Liverpool side who were two results away from a quadruple.
Van Dijk ascended to the captaincy when Jordan Henderson left Anfield in the summer of 2023 and was able to lift a trophy in his first season with the armband.
It was his extra-time goal that beat Chelsea 1-0 in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
As the squad was rebuilt and Arne Slot succeeded Klopp in the dugout, Van Dijk remained a bedrock and skippered the Reds to another league championship in 2024-25.
He missed only one match as Liverpool secured the title with four games to spare, and became the club’s first captain to collect the trophy in front of supporters inside Anfield since Alan Hansen in 1990.
Hansen presented the silverware at the request of Van Dijk, who, at the end of 2025-26, was nearing 400 appearances and 200 games as skipper.
“I chose this club because I felt like it could happen, it could happen that I felt this connection,” he said. “I love this club, I love the fans, I love what Liverpool stands for.”
For supporters who have watched him defend and watched him score, as the song goes, that feeling is mutual.
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