Centre half Virgil van Dijk will become the world’s most expensive defender after Liverpool announced today (December 27, 2017) that they had agreed a deal to sign the 26 year old from Southampton for £75m. The Reds have made no secret of their interest in the Dutch international and with problems in defence plaguing them all season, have beaten both Man City and Chelsea to his signing.
Van Dijk is therefore now the most expensive Dutch soccer player ever, with his 84 million euro move trumping that of Marc Overmars (40 million euros) nearly two decades ago, back in 2000. He is also Liverpool’s most expensive signing and is the newest entrant in the list of most expensive transfers, coming in at 8th behind Neymar, Ousmane Dembele, Paul Pogba, Gareth Bale, Ronaldo, Neymar (again) and Romelu Lukaku.
Van Dijk has already passed a medical and will officially link up with the Reds when the January transfer window opens. Liverpool have made some clever signings in past January transfer windows, with the likes of Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel, Javier Mascherano and Philippe Coutinho all joining the Reds in the winter market, and Reds fans will hope that Van Dijk will be a similar success.