Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has escalated to be widely recognized as one of the best defenders in world football. Due to his amazing impact at Anfield and helping Jurgen Klopp’s side achieve widespread success over the last few years, he’s also become a major fan-favourite at the club.
Van Dijk’s personal story is a pretty inspiring one as well. He came from playing at teams like Celtic and Southampton to go extremely close to winning the Ballon d’Or title in 2019 thanks to his performances for Liverpool. He’s an exemplary figure who rarely lets his team down and leads from the front with his commanding defensive style.
The Dutchman has recovered from adversity throughout his Liverpool career, which involves coming back strongly from the awful ACL injury sustained in the 2020-21 season. That appears to have only increased his popularity within the Liverpool fan base.
Van Dijk also boasts an amazing record at Anfield, having only lost only one Premier League game at Liverpool’s home in over 80 appearances since arriving at the club. That is probably why the match-going fans love him so much and consider him a reliable pillar of the team.
One particular Liverpool fan decided to show her love for the Dutch defender during Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend. Towards the end of the game, the cameras panned to one female Liverpool fan – seemingly in a wheelchair – with a sign on her lap.
The sign read: ‘Virgil I love u’, with a black heart sign in the middle. The supporter appeared to be quite desperate for Van Dijk to see her sign and possibly sign it as a souvenir of sorts as well. But that actually wasn’t the end of the sign either!
Fans have noticed that there was something else that was written at the back of the sign too. It read ‘I H8 Throw-ins’ and the tense look on her face summed up the general emotion levels at Anfield at the time of the game as well.
The moment with the fan was a bit of a ‘blink and you miss it’ moment, but she has received a lot of praise from fellow supporters for her brilliant support. It’s still not exactly known whether the fan was able to catch up with Van Dijk after the game and if he autographed her creative sign either.
With that being said, the Liverpool centre-back is known for being an absolute sweetheart to fans. Last year during an international game for the Netherlands, Van Dijk made a disabled fan’s day by giving him a signed match ball and also taking the time to sign his Liverpool jersey as well.
Earlier this year, the Liverpool fans at Anfield decided to celebrate Van Dijk’s achievements by unveiling a brilliant life-sized banner showing him holding the Champions League trophy. There was another banner beneath it, which read: ‘He’s our centre-back, he’s our number four.’
The Dutch centre-back is quite clearly already a Liverpool legend and a hugely popular figure among the fans. As long as he keeps delivering for the Reds and maintains his respectful, friendly attitude to the fans – he’ll continue being celebrated with such fan banners and chants.