Biography of Virgil Van Dijk Dutch Professional Footballer

 

Virgil Van Dijk

Virgil van Dijk is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Premier League club Liverpool and captains the Netherlands national team. Considered one of the best defenders in the world, he is known for his strength, leadership and aerial ability. 

Born: 8 July 1991 (age 29 years), Breda, Netherlands

Height: 1.93 m

Nationality: Dutch

Weight: 92 kg

Spouse: Rike Nooitgedagt

Current teams: Liverpool F.C. (#4 / Defender), Netherlands national football team (Defender)

After beginning his professional career with Groningen, Van Dijk moved to Celtic in 2013, where he won the Scottish Premiership and 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. In 2015, he joined Southampton before signing for Liverpool in January 2018 for £75 million, a world record transfer fee for a defender at the time. With Liverpool, Van Dijk reached back-to-back UEFA Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the latter. He was also named PFA Players' Player of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season in his first full season. Van Dijk later won the FIFA Club World Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and helped end the club's 30 year league title drought by winning the 2019–20 Premier League.

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. A year later, Van Dijk captained the Netherlands to the final of the inaugural UEFA Nations League, where they finished runners-up.

Van Dijk commonly uses only his first name on the kit. According to his uncle Steven, this is because of a feud with his father.

Van Dijk features as the cover star of the champions edition of EA Sports' FIFA video game FIFA 20. He is endorsed by sportswear company Nike.

Van Dijk is a physically strong, right-footed centre-back, who usually features on the left-hand side of central defence, although he can also play as a right-sided centre-back. He is gifted with pace, good technique, and an eye for goal, and is an effective set-piece taker. Regarding his ability, former Celtic teammate Kris Commons commented that Van Dijk was "comfortable on the ball", also noting that "He had good technique and a wonderful right foot. He was good on set-pieces, some of the free-kicks he scored for Celtic are absolute wonders. He could read the game well. He had an aura about him, a confidence, because I think he knew he was good."

Van Dijk made his full international debut for Netherlands on 10 October 2015, in a 2–1 victory away from home against Kazakhstan in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifier.

He was awarded the captaincy of his country by manager Ronald Koeman on 22 March 2018, and his first match as captain was a 1–0 home friendly defeat by England the next day. On 26 March, he scored his first international goal to conclude a 3–0 win over European champions Portugal at the Stade de Genève. On 13 October, he scored in a 3–0 win over 2014 World Cup champions Germany in the UEFA Nations League. More importantly, he scored the equaliser in the next match with Germany, after assistant coach Dwight Lodeweges sent him a small paper note during a break, with the request to play forward in the last minutes of the game. The goal enabled the Netherlands to win the group phase of the Nations League.