With Lionel Messi stage left and basking in his World Cup glory, there was cause for regret for Virgil van Dijk under the lights of Salle Pleyel on Monday night. His trip to the Parisian concert hall was about recognition, however, and reward for the sacrifices that have enabled the Liverpool defender to retake his place alongside the elite.
Jürgen Klopp had no hesitation in granting Van Dijk’s request to pop over to Paris for the Best Fifa Awards 2022 despite preparing for Wolves’ visit to Anfield in the Premier League 48 hours later. “It’s great,” the Liverpool manager said of Van Dijk’s place in the Fifa Fifpro men’s team of the year. “It’s fully and absolutely deserved.” The 31-year-old repaid his manager with the crucial opening goal in Liverpool’s 2-0 win on Wednesday.
Klopp would not stand in the way of any Liverpool player wanting to collect a high-profile award voted for by fellow professionals, circumstances permitting. But allowing Van Dijk, resplendent in a green suit and black turtle neck, to stand on stage with Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Casemiro among others felt a timely and pointed celebration of the defender’s standing.
This has been a trying season for Liverpool, their defence and individuals alike. The World Cup brought hope for the Netherlands and their captain, only to end in the despair of a penalty shootout defeat by Argentina in the quarter-finals. The last time Van Dijk and Messi were in close proximity before Monday was when passing each other during the shootout. Van Dijk missed the Netherlands’ first spot-kick, Messi converted Argentina’s, and their paths diverged in Qatar. The defender attempted to move on by throwing himself back into Liverpool duties but, in his third game in a week after the restart at Brentford, he suffered a hamstring injury that ruled him out for six weeks. Paris was important.
Van Dijk said: “The penalty miss, obviously I was devastated to be knocked out, but you can miss a penalty unfortunately. But coming back from the knee injury, I played all the Premier League games, I think, because I want to be out there. What caught up is that I played too many games at a time. I could have thought before the World Cup: ‘Let’s rest a little bit in order to be ready,’ but I didn’t because I want to play and I want to be influential for this football club because I love this club and I work each and every day to be successful for this club. But it caught up with me unfortunately, with my body.
“I’m not a robot, and I think going into the World Cup, having the World Cup, doing nothing for a week and then coming back was maybe not the right decision. But I would say that everything that happened, happened for a reason, and the six weeks were a good chance for me to reflect, let my knee settle a little bit and get ready for the rest of the season. It was a tough six weeks to watch because you want to help the team and with a hamstring injury you have to be very patient. Patience is not in my vocabulary, it’s not in my system, but I had to.
“If you go back 10 or 15 years it was quite difficult to be playing at the highest level for players who had done this knee injury, which is why I am very blessed to still be playing at the highest level and trying to get that same level everyone is expecting from me and I’m expecting from myself.”
Monday’s glittering ceremony underlined the extent of Van Dijk’s recovery from the cruciate ligament injury he suffered in October 2020, although reminders of how little patience there is in football remain. The Liverpool defence was castigated after the 5-2 home defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League last week. It was Van Dijk’s second outing since returning from the hamstring injury but there would be no exemption from the criticism.
“You try to hit consistency and try to build up momentum and, coming back after being six weeks out, I need time,” the defender says. “That’s absolutely normal and sometimes people will take it for granted, but it isn’t. That’s what I’m trying to prove but not to the outside world, more to myself. I want to go out there, I want to improve, and I want to make sure we get in the Champions League. This club belongs in the Champions League, and that’s what we’re fighting for and what I’m working hard each and every day for as well. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. That’s what I’m proud of, and I want to keep going.
“You have to sacrifice quite a bit. I would love to spend time with my family and my kids but I need to get treatment every day, make sure I’m eating the right stuff, I’m sleeping, and doing the right things in order to be ready for the next game. That’s the life we live and we are very blessed, very privileged and I really acknowledge that, but you still have to make these sacrifices.”
Liverpool moved to within six points of fourth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand courtesy of the win over Wolves, when Klopp’s side kept a fourth successive clean sheet in the Premier League. Sunday’s visit of Manchester United has assumed the importance the occasion deserves.
“It’s been a tough season for everyone connected to the club but we have to fight,” says Van Dijk. “The season still has months to go and we want to play Champions League, that’s what we are fighting for and that’s why we need everyone. Everyone was behind us and with us when we became champions, when we won the Champions League, when we won the League Cup and FA Cup and became Club World Cup champions. Those are the easy times to be with us but you also have to be with us now and that’s the good thing, to see that and to see what this club is made of.”
