LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 25, 2025: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk (R) with former captain Alan Hansen as they celebrate with the trophy after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 25, 2025: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk (R) with former captain Alan Hansen as they celebrate with the trophy after the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Potentially just 12 months from pulling down the curtain on a glittering Anfield career, where will the captain sit among the greats when all is said and done?
Virgil van Dijk has been a behemoth in a Liverpool side that has taken us beyond our wildest dreams since his arrival in January 2018, racking up 374 appearances and picking up every major honour available to him in the process.
It was evident early on that his path would take him to the top and he entered all-time XI discussions at an unprecedented pace.
Liverpool were in footballing purgatory but only a handful of good decisions away from exploding. The signing of Van Dijk might just have been the best of those.
Van Dijk’s early watershed moments
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, January 5, 2018: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk celebrates scoring the winning goal at the Kop end to seal a 2-1 victory over Everton on his debut during the FA Cup 3rd Round match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC, the 230th Merseyside Derby, at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, January 5, 2018: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk celebrates scoring the winning goal at the Kop end to seal a 2-1 victory over Everton on his debut during the FA Cup 3rd Round match between Liverpool FC and Everton FC, the 230th Merseyside Derby, at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
We should’ve known really, in hindsight, when you score the winner in a Merseyside derby on your debut, your Liverpool career is only going one way.
The Netherlands skipper arrived, shouldering all of the burdens that should accompany a £75 million fee for a defender, but these are shoulders broader than most and the very best players flourish under such conditions more often than not.
Liverpool emerged from an initial failed pursuit of Van Dijk in summer 2017 with tails between legs, forced to apologise to Southampton for alleged tapping up but ultimately escaped without punishment.
Eyebrows were understandably raised when the club kept their powder dry and opted against engaging plan B, but the Reds successfully returned for their man six months later and belatedly allayed concerns about a lack of defensive backbone.
The strategy is by no means unheard of at Anfield, but you’d struggle to find a more warranted example in football history of exercising restraint in the market than this one.
Alisson is often the man credited with elevating Liverpool from Kyiv’s nearly men to European champions 12 months later, but in a short window, Van Dijk played an instrumental part in putting us back on the continental map in the first place.
An era-defining centre-back
The club’s 100 Greatest list has been a persistent source of debate over the summer months among fans.
I dare say some have overlooked the fact that the list was compiled, in part, through public vote, while others may simply have limited faith in the democratic process involved.
MADRID, SPAIN - SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 2019: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk kisses the trophy after the UEFA Champions League Final match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Liverpool FC at the Estadio Metropolitano. Liverpool won 2-0 to win their sixth European Cup. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
MADRID, SPAIN - SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 2019: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk kisses the trophy after the UEFA Champions League Final match between Tottenham Hotspur FC and Liverpool FC at the Estadio Metropolitano. Liverpool won 2-0 to win their sixth European Cup. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Given the depth of greatness sewn into the fabric of the club’s illustrious history, a top-five spot for a modern defender can come across as indulgent upon first inspection.
When all is stripped back, though, the centre-back tag is frankly the only feasible rebuttal to holding him in such regard.
His position certainly didn’t hold him back when he came within a whisker of the 2019 Ballon d’Or, second only to an Argentine you may have heard of who goes by the name of Lionel Messi.
That came within the heart of a peak that spanned further than a footballer’s peak has any right to.
No matter which way you choose to draw up your list, it will be littered with names synonymous with the sport at its most elite level.
In my lifetime alone, we’ve had the luxury of watching Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Mohamed Salah do their thing, to name just a handful of the very best.
There is, however, perhaps nobody who can boast a Liverpool career having spent more seasons as the best in the business in their respective role as Van Dijk. That is why, for me, he belongs at the very top of the conversation.
History will be even kinder
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 25, 2025: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk is kisses the trophy after being presented it by former Liverpool captain Alan Hansen, as the Reds celebrate being crowned Champions for the 20th time, during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 25, 2025: Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk is kisses the trophy after being presented it by former Liverpool captain Alan Hansen, as the Reds celebrate being crowned Champions for the 20th time, during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Much of this naturally hinges on how you interpret the word ‘great’ and all of its trimmings. The club asked us to base our selections on ‘ability, impact, legacy and success’, and there’s no shortage of players able to lay claim to a healthy dose of all four.
In Van Dijk, though, you have an iconic figure with a Merseyside footprint in two parts, overcoming a career-threatening injury and returning to the pinnacle of the game as though it was always part of the script.
Defenders often go under-appreciated in such discourse, and it is to his eternal credit that he has forged his distinguished standing in the sport without doing any of the fashionable bits typically linked with the individual accolades.
Not only has he consistently been the best of his kind on the planet for the vast majority of his Anfield tenure, but the gap between himself and No. 2 was often vast, too.
LONDON, ENGLAND - Sunday, February 25, 2024: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk celebrates after scoring the winning goal in extra time during the Football League Cup Final match between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC at Wembley Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
LONDON, ENGLAND - Sunday, February 25, 2024: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk celebrates after scoring the winning goal in extra time during the Football League Cup Final match between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC at Wembley Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Of all the timeless photographs to come from that momentous final day in 2024/25, his trophy pose with the legendary Alan Hansen is arguably the pick of the bunch. Two masters of their craft who will remain the Liverpool centre-half benchmark for years to come.
Hansen himself is beyond worthy of mention in discussions of this nature, but the manner in which Van Dijk is spoken about by his counterparts, past and present, is impossible to ignore.
For me, only Kenny Dalglish, Gerrard and John Barnes currently trump him – and that is with his story yet unfinished.
Who knows, another league or European Cup could yet land him an eventual place on the podium…
2026-03-21-014-Brighton_Liverpool
BRIGHTON & HOVE, ENGLAND - Saturday, March 21, 2026: Liverpool's Rio Ngumoha arrives before during the FA Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Liverpool FC at the AMEX Community Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Screenshot
Football – FA Premier League – West Ham United FC v Liverpool FC
LONDON, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 27, 2024: Liverpool's Jürgen Klopp (R) and first-team development coach Pepijn Lijnders during the FA Premier League match between West Ham United FC and Liverpool FC at the London Stadium. The game ended in a 2-2 draw. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)