Virgil Van Dijk explains why he rejected Chelsea and Manchester City | OneFootball

Virgil Van Dijk told reporters that during a point where he had offers from various teams including Manchester City and Chelsea, he had numerous encounters with Liverpool supporters at last year’s Champions League Final in Wales.

This resonated heavily on the 26-year-old Van Dijk, as he had rarely ventured out into the world of football fandom.

‘I never really go to big games to watch as a fan, but I was in Cardiff,’ Van Dijk said. ‘The sponsors (Sony) hooked us up with two fantastic seats and it was two hours from where I used to live so we thought, “Let’s go.”

“From the moment I got there a lot of people in hospitality were Liverpool fans and they were saying, ‘Join, please join.’ ‘It was funny to see how big the support and fan base of Liverpool is. ‘That sort of thing stays with you.

“Influence? That is a big word, but it does something to you. ‘There was a lot of attention on myself. There had been a lot of talk about different clubs at that time.

“It could have been different fans coming up to me and saying, ‘Come to us’ but 90 per cent of the supporters were Liverpool.

“That says a lot and the people who were with me were like, ‘Woah, there are so many Liverpool fans, it is all over the world’. It was incredible.”