Jurgen Klopp highlights the humble beginnings of Virgil van Dijk

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Virgil van Dijk is the PFA Player of the Year. After receiving his award yesterday he was played a special recorded message from his Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

The German was full of praise for the player, as reported on the official Liverpool website. But one of his sentences, in particular, has to be highlighted.

“Who would have thought that when he started back in Holland? I think not everybody saw immediately what kind of player hides in this giant body.

“But now the whole world is aware of that and I’m really happy I can be a little bit around that development. I would love to think it’s because of me! But obviously it’s not, he was already the player he is now when we bought him from Southampton.”

Because there is no doubt that the colossal defender from Breda was never meant to make it to this level.

Van Dijk, in his own words during an interview with the BBC, was a ‘slow right-back’ at 16 and was ‘not good enough’ to play at the heart of defence.

Unlike the current golden boy of Dutch football, Matthijs De Ligt, he did not follow the usual route of a Dutch starlet.

He did not come through the famed academies of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven or Feyenoord. Instead, he was with Willem II and struggling before being plucked away by FC Groningen.

Still, he was not a regular with the Dutch youth teams. The likes of then Chelsea youngster Jeffrey Bruma, current Stoke defender Bruno Martins Indi, Inter Milan star Stefan de Vrij, Ricardo van Rjhijn and Ajax stalwart Joel Vetman were the golden generation of defenders from that vintage. Even Leeds United outcast Ouasim Bouy was ahead in the pecking order.

So Klopp hits the nail on the head with his reference to Van Dijk’s meteoric rise. The Liverpool centre-back deserves this accolade and he will hope to lift more trophies with the Reds this season.