Celtic captain Scott Brown has received some high praise from a former team-mate, Liverpool’s £75 million Champions League winning defender Virgil Van Dijk.
Van Dijk played with Brown for two years at Celtic Park. He has described Brown as one of the best captains he has played under, and that opposition players should be wary of facing the Hoops skipper.
“He’s up there”
“He’s a fantastic guy, he helped me a lot. He’s up there with the five best captains I’ve worked with. Opponent players know that they can’t really mess with him. He can be seen as a legend for Celtic” Van Dijk said, on a video appearing on Celtic’s Twitter account.
It is good to see that Van Dijk rates the player so highly. Van Dijk was excellent in his two seasons at Celtic. It is no surprise that he has gone on to become perhaps the best defender in the world.
An interesting aspect to take away from Van Dijk’s comments is that Brown ‘helped’ the player a lot. That could be because Brown takes his role as leader of the team seriously.
Leader of the team both on and off the park
He looks to be a leader of the side both on and off the park. That could be one of the reasons why Van Dijk rates him so highly.
The comment about oppositions players is also intriguing. Brown at times doesn’t get enough credit for the challenges he makes. They make look like hard tackles, but the majority of the time he wins the ball and is rarely booked.
Brown might already be a Celtic legend, like Van Dijk claims, but if he isn’t one now he surely will be when he eventually retires.
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