Virgil van Dijk’s attention was not on football on Thursday night or checking on the state of contract negotiations. Instead he was watching a school production of Fantastic Mr Fox. His daughter Jadi, like her father on the pitch, had a starring role: she was Mrs Fox, while Wataru Endo’s son was a rat. It was the perfect antidote to going out of the Champions League on Tuesday to Paris Saint-Germain and waiting for Sunday’sCarabao Cup final against Newcastle.
“I’m also a normal father, husband, man, and I like to do normal things,” Van Dijk says. “And when you’ve been seen as normal as well, and it’s difficult, but going to school is a nice thing. Some of the kids are looking up, thinking: ‘What are you doing here?’ The most important thing in life is my kids and my wife’s life. These things are definitely important, but they fully understand as well when it’s time to fully focus on the task ahead.”
Related: Virgil van Dijk has ‘no idea’ if he will still be a Liverpool player next season
Before the school trip, Van Dijk had gone through his recovery session in his pool with his son and his wife, Rike, and then had “a long nap because it was much needed”. The family will be back at Wembley. A year ago, they saw him score a disallowed goal before he headed a 118th-minute winner against Chelsea, allowing Van Dijk to lift his first trophy as Liverpool’s captain.
Possessing perspective, something often lost in football, helped make Van Dijk Jürgen Klopp’s first choice to replace Jordan Henderson as captain in 2023. His leadership helped a team shorn of 11 injured players to grind out a victory against Chelsea. This year, three are absent, all right-backs, after Trent Alexander-Arnold joined Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez on the sidelines.
“We were playing against a good Chelsea, conceding chances, but Caoimhín [Kelleher] had a fantastic game, youngsters are coming on,” Van Dijk says. “Jürgen leaving, me scoring [the disallowed goal] in the early stages of the game and then scoring the winner, it was a special evening.
“There are so many good things that have happened in my time here and one day I will properly reflect on everything. But if I think about it now, it brings back so many good memories.”
The 33-year-old is in Liverpool’s training ground with orange and ginger juice in one cup and a smoothie in the other. He leaves the choice of fruit to the blender-in-chief because he likes a surprise every day to break up his disciplined life. Van Dijk brushes off criticism from Wayne Rooney and awaits the inevitable questions about his contract, maintaining calm throughout.
Arne Slot reiterated on Friday that he wanted Van Dijk to stay beyond this summer, when the centre-back’s deal expires, after the Netherlands international said he had “no idea” about his future. Liverpool’s manager turns to his compatriot for advice when required.
Van Dijk says: “I love the fans, the fans love me, and I’ll keep working. I feel in one of the best shapes I’ve been in my career and you’ve been seeing that.
“I enjoy playing, I enjoy leading the boys out, I enjoy being there for each and every one. I feel that responsibility even more than ever, maybe because I’m getting older slowly. I feel fine. We’ll see what happens in the future.”
Slot has used 27 players in the Carabao Cup and Van Dijk is at the centre of the squad, listening to concerns and offering encouragement when needed. “We work so hard, and especially in this cup,” Van Dijk says. “It’s always a collective thing, because so many players are part of all the games, in the journey towards a final. It’s just that motivation. I don’t need extra motivation to win things, but it’s helpful.”
Van Dijk will almost certainly lift the Premier League come the end of the season, with Liverpool’s 15-point lead looking insurmountable, but hopes first to secure his ninth trophy with the club on Sunday. Whether he will get a shot at an 11th is to be determined but that does not weigh heavily on his mind. He controls the controllables, the next one being at Wembley.
