Virgil Van Dijk deserves the Ballon d’Or, affirms Jurgen Klopp

The Liverpool center-back is a club favourite for the award although reports do indicate that even the fans are mixed when it comes to the final voting. With Lionel Messi enjoying one of the best years of his career for Barcelona and often single-handedly doing things for the club, the Dutch defender will have to battle the Argentine for his first individual trophy after the PFA Player of the Year award.

Messi has already edged out Van Dik for FIFA’s The Best award earlier this season with him taking the crown thanks to eight more votes. The same might just happen in December, when the Ballon d’Or ceremony takes place, but Jurgen Klopp has admitted that the former Celtic star deserves it more. The German boss also added that he’s a fan of the Argentine but Van Dijk simply had the better 2018/19 season and even won the Champions League.

"If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That's how it is. But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it. The best player of all? That's Lionel. Best player of last season? That's Virgil. We will see," Klopp said reported Goal.

Both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated the Ballon d’Or for the better part of the last ten odd years with the duo winning five apiece. However, that duopoly was broken last year when Luka Modric won the award after his performances for both Real Madrid and Croatia at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  Yet the last defender to win the award was Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 with the Italian dominating the vote.