Liverpool defender and Netherlands international Virgil van Dijk has given an answer as to how close he was to signing for Sunderland back in 2015 in a recent interview with Gary Neville.
The 31-year-old is now considered to be one of, if not the best centre-back in the world and could've signed for the Black Cats had he not chosen to move down south to St. Mary's to join Southampton for a reported fee of £13 million.
He spent two seasons at Southampton before being signed by Liverpool for a reported fee of £75 million - a world record fee for a defender at the time.
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Speaking on Gary Neville's The Overlap, Van Dijk was asked by a fan whether it was true or not that he'd agreed to sign for Sunderland before leaving Celtic.
"Wow. That's unbelievable," said the Dutchman. Neville laughed and was quick to chime in, replying: "Is that your agent on Twitter asking these questions?!"
"I would say there was interest from Sunderland at the time, yes," Van Dijk continued. "I didn't sign anything but there were conversations. There was interest, there was interest."
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