Two days after Virgil van Dijk and Wataru Endo finished a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain, paired in the centre of the defence, they were together again. On Tuesday, their attention had been focused on Ousmane Dembele, whose prolific goalscoring return suggests he could be called a fox in the box. On Thursday, their eyes were on another fox and his supporting cast.
“One of my daughters had a play called Fantastic Mr Fox,” said Van Dijk. “So, my daughter was actually the mother of the fox, I think, and I remember the son of Wata was a rat. He did very well.” After that, it was time to help young Jadi van Dijk with her science project.
It was a glimpse into the normality of a distinctly abnormal figure, the colossus who emerged by stealth, the defender still at Groningen a few weeks before his 22nd birthday – who went on to finish runner-up in the Ballon d’Or, and who, at 33, remains one of the finest in the game. He is the £75m man who Liverpool risk losing on a free transfer – the captain who could soon belong in the pantheon of Anfield greats while adapting to life at a new club.
Van Dijk looks as unflappable when confronted by world-class forwards as he is by his uncertain future. When he looks forward to Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle, he can look back to last year’s showpiece against Chelsea.
He won it with an extra-time header, as the man who shepherded a team of kids to glory. “You see me falling down when I score that goal, and I think that sums maybe the whole effort of the team up,” he recalled. “The moment you touch it, you know it’s going in. I've seen it maybe a little bit more than I would normally because friends have been sending me it because of Kostas [Tsimikas],” he said. “Kostas was celebrating on me, and I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
Ever calm, Van Dijk had a clearer plan. “For me to be the winner that night was the icing on the cake, but I just wanted to lift the trophy with Jurgen [Klopp]. That was the main target,” he said. “I was happy that I could do it.”
His first silverware as skipper almost certainly will not be his last. PSG’s triumph on Tuesday removed the chance, whether for a year or permanently, that Van Dijk will join Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson, Graeme Souness, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson in the band of Liverpool’s European Cup-winning captains. It is, though, only a matter of time before he is alongside Henderson in a duo of captains to have won the Premier League.
“If you were to lift the two trophies, I think you have a pretty good chance to be in a nice list of captains that have achieved great things in this club,” said Van Dijk. “That’s obviously a big dream of mine.”
And there are two themes: that Van Dijk has achieved more than he ever envisaged, and that the honour conferred with an armband means a lot to him. “I think that’s definitely a moment where you’re just going to reflect a little bit on my whole life. To be in a position now where I’m the captain of Liverpool Football Club, but also of Holland, these things I would have never imagined when I was younger,” he said. “Those dreams were too far away for me, if I think about it now, but that’s the beauty of it all.”
Van Dijk took on the Liverpool captaincy when Henderson and James Milner left in the same summer. “It’s a big gap that has to be filled when your captain and vice-captain are leaving, especially with the characters they are and the successes that we obviously created together,” he said.
Then, he formed part of a double act with Klopp. Arguably, his leadership has been still more important this season, following the departure of an iconic manager, with the arrival of a successor new to the club and the league, in Arne Slot. “The very first conversation I had with [Slot] after the Euros when I was on holiday, one of the first things I said to him was: ‘No matter what you need, whatever you need, I am here for you. You can always call, always text me, any questions, whatever.’ As a captain, you are always a bit in between the players and the manager, and I think since day one it has been going perfectly smooth,” said Van Dijk.
The two Dutchmen can constitute a mutual admiration society, and yet their alliance could prove a one-season affair. Van Dijk said this week he has “no idea” if he will stay. Slot wants him to, though. “That is a good start,” said the defender. Contract talks are ongoing, but they have been for months. There is no resolution yet, but Van Dijk’s evident preference is an extended deal at Anfield.
“It’s not a one-two-three discussion and there we go,” he said. “There are multiple factors, and as long as I am calm to you guys, then there is no need to panic – whatever may happen in the future. If I was worried, you would see me playing a little bit worried, and that is not the case.”
Few look less worried on the pitch than Van Dijk, with his air of natural authority and capacity to make everything look easy. His performances suggest life in limbo suits him. Certainly life on Merseyside does. “I am so proud to be the captain of this beautiful club that means so much to me and has meant so much to me in the past, as well as my family,” he said.
And after his daughter took to the stage, it is time for Van Dijk to return to a stage where he starred last year: Wembley Stadium, looking to lift another trophy.
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