In January 2018 Liverpool paid £75 million for Virgil van Dijk, and plenty of people laughed at the fee. They stopped laughing fairly quickly.
With the Dutchman at the back, Liverpool went from contenders to champions. They won the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020. A big man who was quick, strong in the air and very good with the ball, he changed how the whole side played.
A defender near the top of the Ballon d'Or
In 2019 he finished runner-up for the Ballon d'Or, the closest a defender had come to winning since Cannavaro. That same year he was named UEFA Men's Player of the Year, ahead of both Messi and Ronaldo.
His defending produced its own odd statistic. Van Dijk went 50-plus consecutive Premier League matches without being dribbled past. Wingers tried. They mostly ended up passing backwards.
He is a strong case for the idea that one defender can change an entire team. Liverpool were good before he arrived. With him they became the best side in the world, and he became the leading centre-back of his generation. Number 20.
Tomorrow: number 19.
