‘The greatest’ – Liverpool star Van Dijk admits love for Milan’s iconic defenders | OneFootball

Virgil van Dijk has professed his love for the centre-backs that AC Milan have had throughout their history, ranking Alessandro Nesta above everyone.

Van Dijk is regarded as one of the best centre-backs in modern Premier League history and has been an anchor of the Liverpool back line since his arrival from Southampton in 2018. He has won a Premier League and a Champions League with the Reds, and now wants international glory.

Speaking from the Dutch training camp after they secured qualification for the last 16 of the European Championship, Van Dijk gave an interview to TMW (via Tribuna) in which he was asked about his idols.

“I loved both Nesta and Maldini. That Milan were something completely different. When you talk about Nesta, you mean elegance. He made everything seem so simple. Watching Alessandro’s play was like watching Roger Federer,” he said.

“Players like him showed us, defenders, the way to go. I respect him a lot, as I do all the other Milan defenders, who won European competitions at that time. I learned a lot from each of them. Everyone has their own opinion, but in my opinion, Nesta was the greatest Italian defender.”

We recently wrote a feature looking at Milan’s love affair with players from the Netherlands dating back to the days of the Tre Tulipani and Clarence Seedorf to the present day with Tijjani Reijnders.

He might be 32 and still at the peak of his powers, but could Van Dijk potentially be tempted to join his compatriot along with the likes of Mats Wieffer and Joshua Zirkzee? Time will tell.