It’s unlikely that this is a view shared by Barcelona fans, but Jurgen Klopp has made his case as to why Virgil van Dijk deserves to win the Ballon d’Or this year.
The Dutchman and Lionel Messi will undoubtedly be two of the frontrunners for the award, while Cristiano Ronaldo will hope to have something to say when the winner is announced on December 2.
However, Klopp has done his best to get the Van Dijk argument out there, as he simply believes that the Liverpool defender has deserved it more for what he has done over the past 12 months.
As seen in the video below, the Reds boss conceded that if the award was for the best player of all time then Messi would walk away with it.
That said, his point is that Van Dijk helped to lead Liverpool to the Champions League last season in what was a stellar campaign for the centre-half both for club and country, and so there is certainly a case to be made that he should land the award this time round.
Time will tell if that’s a sentiment shared in the voting though, as while Klopp does make a logical, albeit biased, argument for Van Dijk, it will surely take some doing to deny both Messi and Ronaldo for a second consecutive year after Luka Modric secured the award in 2018.
Messi or Van Dijk for the Ballon d'Or? Klopp breaks it down ? pic.twitter.com/a7uNRKUWw7
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 25, 2019