virgil van dijk

Virgil van Dijk born on 8 July 1991 is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a center-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. He is the only defender to win UEFA Men's Player of the Year and has finished runner-up for the Ballon d'Or and Best FIFA Men's Player.
Van Dijk was born in Breda to a Dutch father and a Surinamese mother. Growing up he would play football wherever he could - on the streets, in concrete cages, and eventually Saturday morning matches. He combined his time playing at the Willem II academy with a part-time job as a dishwasher. Having previously and unsuccessfully featured as a right-back, Van Dijk was shifted into a central defensive position in 2008, aged 17, after he grew in height by around 18 centimeters. Despite the positional shift and Van Dijk's physical growth, Willem II's reserve manager at the time Edwin Hermans believed he had "too many limitations" which prevented him from breaking into the first team. In 2010, he was scouted by former Dutch international Martin Koeman, who was working for FC Groningen at the time, and he ended up completing a free transfer to the club in the same year.
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 initially struggled to break into Groningen's first team with club staff believing he was "overtired" after extensive playing time with Willem II's academy and reserve sides. He made his professional debut for the club on 1 May 2011, coming on as a 72nd-minute substitute for Petter Andersson during a 4-2 victory against ADO Den Haag. On 29 May, and against the same opposition, he made his first start for Groningen and scored his first professional goals, netting twice in a 5-1 win in a UEFA Europa League play-off match.
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.
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 equalizer 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
Van Dijk features as the cover star of the champions edition of EA Sports' FIFA video game FIFA 20. He is endorsed by the sportswear company Nike.