Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk has revealed the reason he chose Liverpool despite strong interest from Manchester City.
Man City had made Van Dijk one of their key targets with Barcelona and Chelsea also linked with the then- Southampton ace, who Liverpool failed to sign the previous summer. But the Reds won the race for Van Dijk and
Since his move to Liverpool Van Dijk has been a revelation and this term he helped his team to own the best defensive record in the Premier League, keeping 21 clean sheets and conceding only 22 goals in 38 games.
On how important his spell in Scotland was for his career, Van Dijk told the
Guardian: “It was massive. I spoke quite good English but the Scottish accent is totally different.
“I remember in the beginning people were talking and I was just nodding and saying yes.
“But going to Celtic was fantastic for me even if it was the same situation I had in Holland. [Bigger] clubs doubted my ability because they thought the standard was not so high in Scotland. I kept working hard and I always believed in myself.
“And the fans at Celtic are amazing. They live and die for their club.
“That’s something I love - real fans, real passion. It’s why I also made the decision to come to Liverpool.”
He added: “It’s going to hurt if you lose – but it’s not the end of the world. The only thing we can do is to give everything and have no regrets if they’re the better team.
“We’re not thinking about losing or how we’re going to overcome this barrier of losing the Premier League by one point, then losing the Champions League. That’s not worth thinking about.
“I’m thinking about playing to our best ability with all our talent and experience. I read that if we win the Champions League our next two games are the Community Shield and European Super Cup.
“We can win three cups in three games. It’s something we strive for. We were close in the Premier League - but now we have a chance to win the Champions League, the big one. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
