The Liverpool defender missed out on being named the Best Men’s Player at Monday night’s award ceremony.
Some Liverpool supporters feel aggrieved that Virgil van Dijk did not win the FIFA Best Men’s Player award at a high-profile ceremony in Italy on Monday.
Voted on by the captains and managers of every international team, Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi picked up the honour after a superb 2018/19 season.
Messi scored 51 goals and assisted 22 times in just 50 appearances for the Spanish club last year, helping his side to another La Liga title.
It’s a phenomenal record.
However, van Dijk’s football is played in defence and so statistically he is unable to match such crazy attacking numbers.
His big achievement was overhauling a Liverpool defence and helping them to a UEFA Champions League win, the most prestigious honour in world club football.
The Dutchman, who is worth every penny of his £180k-a-week contract (Spotrac), was simply immense throughout the season, also inspiring the kind of defensive form that made the Reds serious title contenders and delivered a 97 point season.
Nobody conceded fewer goals than Liverpool in the English top-flight.
The player himself was humble after the award was announced as Messi’s.
As quoted by Goal.com, van Dijk said: “Disappointed? You can’t be disappointed.
“I’m just very happy to be here, to be in the team of the year, after the hard work and the good work we put in last year.
“Today, I, unfortunately, didn’t win but I’m not disappointed.”
Some Liverpool fans though are less understanding, taking to Twitter to share their thoughts over the last 24 hours…
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