Image Credits: Getty Images
Liverpool’s captain, Virgil Van Dijk, recently discovered that he’d been in the Premier League for a decade.
The Dutchman started out Premier League life at Southampton for two full seasons, before joining the Reds in January 2018:
“Not surprised, it’s nice. 10 years, longevity I just mentioned. Yeah, it’s nice. It’s the league, in my opinion everyone wants to be part of and to be playing in it for 10 years. It’s incredible”, Van Dijk said to Sky Sports
His first season at Southampton was under the management of Dutch compatriot, Ronald Koeman, who certainly instilled a level of belief that Van Dijk could perform at the top level of English football.
“We had a record-breaking season under obviously Ronald Koeman, who gave me the opportunity to come play in the Premier League that I will always be grateful for.”
His Premier League debut was against West Brom away, where Van Dijk capabilities were shown at full force, keeping an important clean sheet.
“I remember my debut, of course, against West Brom away, coming out and being in the line-up in the Premier League and keeping a clean sheet.”
“These things I will never forget, like it was such a special, special moment and like I felt like a little kid after the game, because you see the games and now you’re playing in the Premier League yourself and you work so hard to be there. And obviously, doing that at Southampton was incredible”.
Southampton finished 6th in the Premier League that year, beating top clubs like Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham and even the Mighty Reds, beating Liverpool 3-2 at home.
They collected 18 wins and qualification for the Europa League group stage.
That certainly caught the eye of most top Premier League teams at the time, including the Reds, who signed the centre-back for £75 million pounds.
“When I joined Liverpool, I would have loved to be, you know, achieving what I’ve achieved up until now. Being the captain, being the first Dutch captain lifting the Premier League, winning the Champions League, the Cup competitions that we have won. “It helped me get to where I am today.” said Van Dijk.
“Having people speak about me in a positive way is obviously always a good thing, and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Since then, the rest is history, with the 34-year-old collecting nine trophies for Liverpool, including some personal honours:
2x Premier Leagues (2020,2025)
1x Champions League (2019)
1x FA Cup (2022)
2x EFL cups (2022, 2024)
1x UEFA Super Cup (2020)
1x FIFA Club World Cup (2020)
1x Community Shield (2022)
UEFA best player in Europe (2019)
1x Player of the year (18/19)
He is also Liverpool’s Captain this season, leading the team to the start of their title defence with a 4-2 win against Bournemouth, although mentioned attacking problems before the game.
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