World Cup winner proclaims Liverpool have ‘the best’ player on the planet in one position | OneFootball

A World Cup-winning legend has said that Liverpool currently have ‘the best’ player in the world in one position.

While Arne Slot has made his own imprint on the Reds’ starting XI with a plethora of summer signings, he remains quite reliant on a long-serving core who’ve also been at Anfield for the bulk of Jurgen Klopp’s reign.

One such stalwart is Virgil van Dijk, the man who’s captained LFC to Carabao Cup and Premier League glory since taking the armband in 2023 and was among the shortlist of nominees for this year’s Ballon d’Or.

The Liverpool skipper is regarded by many as one of the world’s best centre-backs of his generation, and another man who enjoyed such an exalted status in his own playing days has claimed that the 34-year-old is the market leader in his position.

Nesta hails Van Dijk as the world’s best defender

When asked to name the best defender on the planet, Alessandro Nesta – a member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning squad who also lifted the Champions League twice with AC Milan – replied (via GOAL): “For me, Van Dijk is the best because he performs every year at the same level.

“He plays in the Premier League, the biggest league in the world and the toughest. For me, he’s the best.”

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Van Dijk is an all-time great for Liverpool

If you’re looking for one soundbyte to contextualise just how iconic a figure Van Dijk has become at Liverpool, the great Sir Kenny Dalglish recently claimed that he’d narrowly pick him over Alan Hansen when given a straight choice between the two.

That’s arguably our greatest ever player (and also a legendary manager) favouring the current captain over a man often regarded as the standard bearer when it comes to Reds centre-backs over history.

Aside from the abortive 2020/21 season (the majority of which he missed with an ACL injury) and an untypically shaky 2022/23 campaign, the Dutchman has been consistently brilliant for LFC ever since coming to Anfield nearly eight years ago, transforming a defence which had previously been quite brittle.

Although Liverpool have been rocky at the back in recent weeks, we can still trust in Van Dijk to play a massive part if we’re to retain our Premier League title, and it’s frightening to think of how much worse things would be now if he hadn’t signed a contract extension six months ago.

Nesta proclaiming our skipper to be the best centre-back in the world is a classic example of the phrase ‘real recognises real’!