Liverpool star reveals how close he came to Sunderland move
Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk has confirmed there were once ‘conversations’ about him signing for Sunderland when he played for Celtic.
Van Dijk has established himself as arguably the best central defender in the world since his £75million move to Anfield from Southampton in 2018.
However, it could have Sunderland, not Southampton, receiving that cash windfall with the Dutchman once close to signing for the Black Cats.
Van Dijk was a guest on the overlap, and Gary Neville asked him the question, which had been requested by a Sunderland fan on Twitter, about if the rumours were true.
"I would say there was interest from Sunderland at the time, yes," Van Dijk continued. "I didn't sign anything but there were conversations. There was interest, there was interest."
Sunderland’s interest in Van Dijk came in the summer of 2014, just weeks after the ‘miracle’ escape under Gus Poyet.
Poyet had been a big fan of Van Dijk in his Groningen days and tried to sign him for Brighton.
"The scouts and the chairman Tony Bloom said to me 'we need you to go to Holland to watch this player',” Poyet recalled to Talksport in 2019.
"With my assistant Mauricio Taricco we sit down and watch and after 10 minutes we can see that he is bigger than everyone, more powerful than everyone and so calm on the ball.
"So we watched the whole game and afterwards I talk to the chairman and we start to get in contact with the club and the agents and it's too expensive.
"It was a €3million gamble and Brighton had just come into the Championship. The year after we paid £3million for Leo Ulloa who went to Leicester. But for a defender at that time it was too much.”
It is little surprise, then, that Poyet again pushed for the player during his one and only summer transfer window as a manager. However, Celtic were not remotely interested in selling at that time and made it clear to Sunderland. Later that summer, Sunderland did eventually land a central defender: Sebastian Coates. Depressing.
A year later Van Dijk joined Southampton for £13million, with Sunderland’s interest in him apparently ending when Poyet left the club a few months earlier.