The Liverpool star was made at Celtic, reckons Ronald Koeman.
Ronald Koeman has told The Record that Celtic are primarily responsible for the heights that Virgil van Dijk has reached since leaving Parkhead.
The Netherlands international has arguably been the world’s finest centre-back over the past 12 months following a £70 million switch to Liverpool last January.
Van Dijk has come a very long way since playing for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership as recently as 2015, after being signed by Neil Lennon for £2.2 million.
And Koeman, who brought the 27-year-old to Southampton from Parkhead, has said that the Hoops played a massive role in developing the towering defender.
He told The Record: “For me, Virgil became the player he is at Celtic.
“In Scotland he learned about playing under pressure and developed faster than we could have imagined. He continued that at Southampton and went up another level.
“Now he is easily the best defender in the world.”
Celtic fans can and do take enormous pride in the fact that they helped to develop a truly world-class player.
Lennon signed him from Groningen in 2013, but if he was a gem back then why weren’t other, bigger clubs interested?
The Scots clearly saw something in him that many others didn’t and Koeman is right, without Celtic we may not know Van Dijk as we currently know him.
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