One of the best defenders in the world, Virgil van Dijk will only now make his debut in a significant international competition due to a confluence of luck and circumstance.
Van Dijk went from a teenager that Willem II effectively disregarded to an unheralded potential at Groningen to the most expensive defender in the world when Liverpool acquired him from Southampton for £75 million in 2018.
He quickly ingratiated himself with Anfield supporters by scoring the winner on his home debut against Everton in the Merseyside derby, and his arrival coincided with a run to the Champions League final.
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Van Dijk’s displays the following season helped the Reds return to the biggest game in European club football, with Liverpool defeating Tottenham Hotspur to lift their sixth European Cup weeks after being pipped to the Premier League title on the final day by Manchester City despite racking up 97 points.
The Dutchman lost out on the 2019 Ballon d’Or to Lionel Messi by a handful of votes but earned the recognition of his peers by winning the English PFA Players’ player of the year prize.
Van Dijk played every minute during the Covid-interrupted 2019-20 campaign as Liverpool ended a 30-year wait for the English title, but his absence was keenly felt the next season after he was injured in a collision with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
A torn ACL sidelined Van Dijk for over nine months and kept him out of Euro 2020, where the Dutch flattered to deceive and exited in the last 16 after cruising through the group stage.
The 2014 World Cup came too soon for Van Dijk, who didn’t make his Netherlands debut until a year later. But the national team’s declining fortunes saw the Oranje miss out entirely on Euro 2016, despite the tournament’s expansion to 24 countries, and the World Cup in Russia.
Described as a “physical monster” by Erling Haaland, it wasn’t until Van Dijk grew 18 centimetres the summer he turned 17 that his transformation from “a slow right-back”, as he told the BBC, began to take shape.
He was working part-time as a dishwasher in a Breda restaurant while in the Willem II academy, and had it not been for the intervention of Martin Koeman — the father of fellow Dutch internationals Ronald and Erwin — he may never have made the grade.
Koeman scouted Van Dijk while working for Groningen, the club the latter would join on a free transfer in 2010. Van Dijk made his debut the next year but was taken seriously ill, aged 20, with peritonitis and kidney poisoning.
“I remember lying in that bed. The only thing I could see was tubes. My body was broken. I couldn’t do anything,” he told Voetbal International magazine, revealing he had signed “a sort of will” to prepare for the worst.
Van Dijk quickly recovered and performed admirably once more, but none of the larger Dutch clubs were interested in signing him, which made way for his 2013 transfer to Celtic.
After spending two seasons in Scotland, Southampton came calling as the Koeman link reappeared, with Ronald serving as coach of the team on the south coast of England.
Liverpool took notice of Van Dijk’s achievements, which prompted the defender to submit a transfer request that was ultimately approved in January 2018.
Soon after, Koeman appointed him captain of the Netherlands. He will now have the opportunity to compete on the largest stage in Qatar.
