Former Premier League winner Chris Sutton has named Virgil van Dijk as the world’s third best player behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
BBC Sport’s football pundits were asked to name the player they felt was closest to Messi and Ronaldo, as this year’s Ballon d’Or faces the real possibility of not being won by the consensus two greatest players of their generation.
And Sutton plumped for Van Dijk, who is on a wage of £150,000-per-week at Anfield [Source: Spotrac].
“It may not be fashionable to mention a defender when you have a conversation like this, but when you look at the difference Virgil van Dijk has made to Liverpool then you can see just how good he is,” he wrote for the BBC.
“There is not an attribute you need as a defender that he does not have – he is quick, strong, consistent and he does not seem to lose his concentration. He also has tremendous distribution when he is on the ball, and he reads the game so well. He has got the lot.”
OPINION
There are so many wonderful talents who could be considered the best player in the world outside of Messi and Ronaldo, and you have to say that Van Dijk is in that conversation. He has shown what a top drawer player he is since he joined Liverpool in January, turning an error-strewn defence into one of the best in the Premier League. You just have to look at the positive impact he has made on team mates Dejan Lovren and Joe Gomez to see that he’s worth every penny of the reported However, is he really the third best player in world football? Probably not. The presence of the likes of Eden Hazard, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Luka Modric makes picking Van Dijk a bit of a stretch, but you cannot deny he is one of the best, if not the best, defender operating at the top level today.
