Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk has offered a glittering review of an education at Celtic that primed him for his all-conquering career in English football.
Widely regarded as the best centre-half in world football for a number of years now, van Dijk has developed considerably from the player who became an instant favourite in Paradise upon signing from FC Groningen in 2013.
The defender returns to Glasgow for the first time since leaving for Southampton in 2015 to face Celtic’s cross-city rivals for Liverpool in the Champions League on Wednesday and it’s an experience that the 2019 Ballon D’Or runner-up is highly anticipating.
As reported by The Scotsman, van Dijk said: “It was my first time going abroad, my first time winning trophies, and all of those things were massive to me. They shaped me, how I am as a person. I have my daughter who was born there. So many good memories that I will cherish forever so it will be great to go back and I hope we will get the win as well.”
The 31-year-old believes that the weekly pressure playing for Celtic was the perfect education to play for Liverpool, with van Dijk a key component of Jurgen Klopp’s rebuild that has restored the Reds to their former title-winning glory.
He said: “At Celtic, the pressure was immense. If you draw you’ve lost. You had to win and that was something, that mentality, I definitely learned. But it was also learning how to play the British style with more direct, channel balls, a lot of fighting, headers. It was something I wasn’t really used to in Holland so it definitely helped me in order to be ready for my next step in the Premier League.
“Celtic was 100 per cent similar to Liverpool and that is maybe one of the reasons that I picked Liverpool [in 2019] as well. I really feel that my step to Celtic was something based on a feeling with the fans, the club, the community and that it really feels like it is a way of living at Celtic.
“I am really proud of being a part of Celtic and Liverpool.”
There have been few examples as stark in Celtic’s modern history of under-valuing transfers, although it’s something that the club have done better in recent seasons.
Southampton snapped up van Dijk for an estimated £14m plus sell-on, and flipped the Dutch international to Klopp’s Liverpool for a deal worth around £75m, and it’s difficult to argue that he hasn’t provided value for money on Merseyside.
His endorsement is a welcome one and Celtic’s reputation as a place for world-class talent to develop is an important one to uphold if the club wish to discover more bargains like van Dijk down the line.
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