Virgil van Dijk

That rise had run through Southampton, where he arrived in 2015 for an undisclosed fee widely put at £13–15 million, and before that through FC Groningen and the Willem II academy in his native Breda.

At Celtic he won back-to-back Scottish Premiership titles and a League Cup, and was named the Scottish Professional Football League Player of the Year in his final season there. The Liverpool move multiplied that. He won the Champions League in 2018–19, followed by the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup, then the Premier League in 2019–20. He received individual recognition: the PFA Players' Player of the Year, the Premier League Player of the Season and UEFA's Men's Player of the Year, alongside runner-up finishes for the Ballon d'Or and the Best FIFA Men's Player award.

That momentum was interrupted on 17 October 2020, when he ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a match against Everton. The injury kept him out for the rest of the 2020–21 season and cost him a place at UEFA Euro 2020. He returned to competitive football in August 2021.

With the Netherlands , he has earned 96 caps and scored 13 goals, and has been part of squads that finished runners-up in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League and took third place at Euro 2024.