One of the best central defenders in the world has just made his debut with the Netherlands in soccer’s highest international competition, the World Cup, let’s examine how a central defender of the stature of Virgil van Dijkmade his debut in a competition like this past the age of thirty.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russiawhen Virgil signed for Liverpool just six months from Southampton, the orange team failed to qualify for the tournament after being left out of the qualifying leagueto face them Sweden Y Francewhich knocked out the finalists in 2010. The Dutchman also missed out on Euro 2016, as the Dutch were also unable to participate.
On the other hand, if we go back 8 years, At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Van Dijk at the age of 23 was a member of Celtic in Glasgow and played in the Scottish League and Europa League. At that time, Louis van Gaal preferred to choose other defenders such as Ron Vlaar, Stefan De Vrij, Bruno Martins Indi, Daley Blind or Janmaat among others, so Van Dijk was still young without a chance to debut .
And now if we go back to 12 yearswhen the central defender was only 19 years old, and The Netherlands lost the final against Spain at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.the Dutchman began to show his head for the first team of Groningen. Whereas in 2010, he debuted and played his first 5 games, so he wasn’t in the pool to be called up yet.
In 2022, the situation changedAfter not being considered in his early years as a professional, and having the bad luck of his team being left out of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Van Dijk arrives at the Qatar 2022 World Cup aged 31, with 34 caps and captaining the Netherlands.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
