Ian Wright is a huge fan of the former Celtic defender.
Ian Wright has told BBC’s Match of the Day program that Celtic deserve a large portion of credit for Virgil van Dijk’s emergence as the world’s finest defender.
The Liverpool centre-back is widely considered the best on the planet after establishing himself as a key player in a back four that has conceded only seven goals in 18 Premier League outings.
Van Dijk, who spent two years at Celtic, joined Liverpool for a club-record £75 million last January from Southampton.
The Hoops spent only £2.6 million [BBC Sport] on signing him from Groningen in 2013, and Wright feels that his former club deserve credit for taking a chance that countless other scouts didn’t.
“Virgil Van Dijk has got everything. When you consider the amount of top scouts that passed on him, you have to give Celtic credit,” the Arsenal legend told BBC’s MOTD.
“Klopp has to get credit, £75million that people look at now and say it’s a snip. He has everything. We’re talking about the best defender in the world right now.”
Wright is spot-on. Celtic can’t have been the only club looking at a player with such potential, but why didn’t other sides take the plunge? It can only be assumed that his talent wasn’t as obvious to them as is it was for Neil Lennon and his scouting team.
The Hoops also pocketed £7.5 million from his mega-money move to Anfield, after a 10% sell-on clause was written into his Southampton contract after originally moving to the Premier League side in 2015.
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