It summed up the reactionary nature of modern football that some eyebrows were raised when Virgil van Dijk was named in the 2022 FIFA FIFPRO TheBest Men's World XI last week.
The Liverpool star was on hand at the glitzy ceremony in Paris to pick up his award alongside Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Casemiro as he was recognised for a spectacular 2021/22 campaign where he won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup before helping Jurgen Klopp's side to the Champions League final after a 92-point Premier League campaign.
That the gong was scooped less than a week after Liverpool's 5-2 humbling at home to Real Madrid in the last 16 of the European Cup inevitably led to some muted scoffing online, however. Van Dijk? He's not the player he was, goes the theory.
At a time when the Reds, collectively, have plummeted from the heights they reached last time out, the sight of Liverpool's No.4 rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the modern game jarred to those whose opinions and hot-takes are based on the last clip they caught on social media.
READ MORE: National media notice two Liverpool stars 'on a mission' as blunt Man United warning sent
READ MORE: Liverpool and FSG could partner with 'biggest empire in global sports'
But then, that speaks more about the knee-jerk hyperbole that is rife within the modern discourse of football rather than the quality of the Oranje skipper. Since 2019, Van Dijk has been instrumental in helping Liverpool lift every top-level trophy available to them. Last season, he was the bedrock for a side who shipped just 26 league goals, which, alongside Manchester City, was the fewest of any team in Europe's top five leagues.
With three Champions League finals to his name since he moved to Anfield, Van Dijk, evidently, is still the pre-eminent centre-back in world football according to his peers and what is most impressive, from the Netherlands captain's perspective, is how he has been able to return to somewhere near the lofty heights he enjoyed prior to a career-threatening knee injury suffered by Everton's Jordan Pickford's reckless reducer at Goodison Park way back in October 2020.
It was a problem that required a quick surgery in London later that month and was an issue that left Van Dijk sidelined for 10 months of competitive action, costing him his dream of leading the Dutch out at a major international tournament in the process as he sensibly took the decision to miss the European Championships in an attempt to return to peak condition for his club later that summer.
"Obviously I came back from quite a complex injury that I had two years ago now," Van Dijk says. "That takes treatment, that takes time, it takes getting used to and adaptation. That's what I'm doing and I'm fine with it, that's the way I have to handle myself and I won't say it's always easy but it happens and I try to be ready for each and every game. I'd say over the years I've been very much available, for almost every game, and try to hit a very high level and that's what I try to do now as well."
Speaking after Liverpool's 2-0 win over Wolves on Wednesday evening, Van Dijk detailed the sacrifices he was forced to make during his rehabilitation period. The former Southampton star spent the best part of two months in Dubai at the start of 2021 using the world-renowned Nad al Sheba complex to aid his recovery before returning to Merseyside to step up a return that eventually came as a substitute in a pre-season friendly defeat to Hertha Berlin in July of that year.
"Obviously, we play every three or four days, so what you have to do is sacrifice quite a bit," Van Dijk says. "I would love to spend time with my family and my kids but obviously 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 and know that, but you still have to make these sacrifices. That's what's going on behind the scenes and that's the life we live. I'm very happy and blessed but it's happening, and for me to be six weeks out and then come back and try to find the rhythm and level that is expected from me and I expect from myself especially, it takes a little bit of time. But I'm happy in myself."
Since his 2021 comeback, Van Dijk has played 79 times for the Reds, clocking up a total of 7,095 minutes in the process. No outfield member of Klopp's squad played more than the defender's 4620 minutes last term as the club were involved in every fixture possible in a 63-game marathon term. He played in 51 of those.
A mid-season World Cup in Qatar, where Louis van Gaal's side were eliminated on penalties to eventual winners Argentina at the quarter-final stage, was further stress on the body of a player who turned 31 in July. Given the sheer volume of football played by the £75m man since his competitive comeback in August 2021, a hamstring issue sustained at the start of the year, in the 3-1 loss to Brentford, was no major shock.
He adds: "Coming back from the knee injury, I played all the Premier League games, I think (last season), because everybody wants to be out there, I want to be out there. That's what I'm working hard for.
"What caught up [with me] is that I played too many games at a time. When it's game-day I want to play, I'll do everything possible to play, but I could have also 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, my body, I'm not a robot, and I think going into the World Cup, having the World Cup, and then doing nothing for a week and coming back, it was maybe not the right decision.
"But at the end of the day these things happen, they could have not been happening and I would still be playing. I would say that everything that happened, happened for a reason, and this six weeks was a good chance for me to reflect, but also 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 especially 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.
“Obviously you come back. If you let your knee and your body settle you get more out of it. After every game you have to make sure you are on top of it, do the right stuff. That's everyone who had a knee injury. We can all go back 10 or 15 years ago and it was quite difficult to be playing at the highest level for players who had done this 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."
The victory against Wolves marked the Reds' fourth successive clean sheet and the third since Van Dijk returned to the team after six weeks out with that hamstring setback at Brentford. Klopp's men are not purring as an attacking force at present but their solidity at the back is providing the platform for them to pursue the top four as we enter the final third of the campaign.
"You try to hit consistency and try to build up momentum and, for me, coming back after being six weeks out, playing straight away four games 90 minutes in such a short space of time, I need time!" Van Dijk adds. "That's absolutely normal and sometimes people around will take it for granted and see it as normal, but it isn't.
"That's what I'm trying to prove but not to the outside world but to myself more. I want to go out there, I want to improve, and I want to make sure we get in the Champions League. As I said after the Palace game, I want to 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, obviously on the pitch in the games but also behind the scenes. There's a lot of work behind the scenes that goes on as well. That's what I'm trying to do, that's what I'm proud of, and I want to keep going."
READ NEXT:
