As he picked up the Professional Footballers Association Player of the Year award Virgil van Dijk made special mention of the two seasons that he spent at Celtic.
The Dutchman saw off the challenge of Eden Hazard and Raheem Sterling to pick up the award as Liverpool take Manchester City all the way for the EPL title and prepare for a Champions League semi-final against Barcelona coming up on Wednesday.
The big man @VirgilvDijk thanking Celtic, he always speaks highly about our club and never forgets what we done for him. Congratulations Virgil. pic.twitter.com/iEor4U7yzF
— CiaránR (@Ciaran8867) April 28, 2019
After thanking Groningen and Southamption he said ‘and obviously Celtic, not to forget’.
Neil Lennon signed van Dijk from Groningen in 2013 for £2.5m with Southampton adding £10m to that fee when he moved to England two years later.
Jurgen Klopp was determined to take the defender to Liverpool but was widely questioned when he paid out £75 in January 2018 which was a record fee for a defender. Celtic are believed to have picked up around £6m from a sell-on clause in that fee.
Van Dijk’s arrival helped the club into the final of the Champions League where they lost to Real Madrid, this season despite reaching 91 points Liverpool are sitting a point behind Manchester City with two matches left to play.
Interesting comments, hard to disputehttps://t.co/shArd5Oyfz
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) April 29, 2019
