Virgil van Dijk has gone on to achieve the pinnacle of football since leaving Celtic. He would go onto impress at Southampton, which led to Liverpool paying out a then world record transfer fee for a defender to sign him. He proved to be the one who transformed the Reds back into one of the best teams on the planet.
Van Dijk has won everything that there is to win at Liverpool, including the Champions League and the Premier League, ending a 30-year long search to be the Champions of England once again. He also finished second, behind Lionel Messi, in the Ballon d’Or race.
Well, when he arrived at Celtic, nobody could have expected that he would go onto become what many consider the best defender in Premier League history.
A defeat in Celtic colours at the hands of Barcelona seems to have been particularly memorable for Van Dijk. As reported by GOAL, he said while speaking on The Overlap about his favourite away ground:
"“That a difficult one as well, but I would say Camp Nou, Barcelona. Obviously for myself, watching a lot of Barcelona games when I was younger and then being able to play in it with Celtic the first time and getting beat 6-1 was tough. But to be able to play there was a big one, I really enjoyed it. It is incredible, it’s insane.”"
Van Dijk makes admission about Celtic defeat away at Camp Nou vs Barcelona
It is great to see how well Van Dijk has gone on to do and it should work as inspiration to a lot of players currently at Celtic, that there is a path to becoming one of the best in the history of the game that goes through Parkhead.
Right now, Liverpool are struggling as Jurgen Klopp’s side have taken a major step back this season. But even then, they had enough in the tank to beat the Rangers 7-1 at Ibrox.
That must have been a sweet one for Van Dijk as a former Celtic player. He is 31 years of age now, and has gone on to have a tremendous career, and we can only wish him the best of luck moving forward.