Virgil van Dijk was spotted talking to Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Luis Campos after Liverpool lost to the French giants on Tuesday night.
The Reds have had an amazing season in the Premier League so far with Arne Slot’s side leading the Premier League by 15 points to second-placed Arsenal.
Slot could hardly have wished for a better start as the new Liverpool manager with the Reds reaching the League Cup final too, although they were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night by PSG on penalties.
The only upset on his record this season was their 1-0 defeat to Championship strugglers Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup but Slot has had a few off-field issues to deal with.
Salah, Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all out of contract in the summer and there is little sign that any of them will be renewing.
Liverpool captain Van Dijk had seemed like the most likely of the trio to sign a new contract with reliable journalist James Pearce insisting that he is “confident” that the Dutchman will remain.
The Athletic‘s Pearce wrote in GiveMeSport at the end of last month: “I’m still confident that Van Dijk will stay put. I think he’s been by far and away the best centre-half in European football this season.
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“It’s not only what he gives you on the pitch but he is that ideal role model, leader, talisman in terms of the way he conducts himself off the pitch as well.
“I think the fact there has been so little talk about potential options where he could potentially go, I think that points to the most likelihood of him staying put.”
There has already been speculation that PSG could be one of the clubs interested in signing Van Dijk and those rumours have ramped up a notch after French outlet Foot Mercato filmed the Liverpool defender having a conversation with the French giants’ president Al-Khelaifi and their transfer chief Campos.
When asked about the contract situations of Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold after the PSG defeat, Slot said: “It is creative to come up with the contract situation. That is the last thing I am thinking of. Liverpool showed themselves and hopefully they have more luck next year.”
But it looks like Liverpool could already be lining up Van Dijk’s ‘successor’ with Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck ‘on their list’, according to Bild journalist Christian Falk.
Falk wrote on X: ‘Liverpool have Nico Schlotterbeck (25, contract til 2017) of @BVB Dortmund on their list.
‘Schlotterbeck could be the successor of Virgil van Dijk (33) The centre-back has a salary of €5mio per year Dortmund want to give him a new contract.’