Neil Lennon has sympathised with Virgil van Dijk after missing out on the Best FIFA Men’s Player award on Monday night.
Van Dijk was pipped to the award by Lionel Messi, despite many believing the Dutchman was the favourite.
It speaks volumes of the defender’s rise since leaving Celtic, he is now going head-to-head with arguably the two greatest players to ever play football; Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Lennon was in key in Van Dijk’s development, he brought him to Celtic in 2013, giving him a platform to play week in week out before sealing a move to Southampton.
Speaking to reporters at his Celtic press conference on Tuesday, Lennon gave his thoughts on the decision.
I thought he should’ve won it. But Messi is Messi, and if you look at the numbers from Messi….we probably take it for granted what he does because he does it so well on a regular basis. But I thought Virgil was the outstanding player in domestic and European football.
I thought he deserved to win it. I’m disappointed for him. We’re in an era of Messi and Ronaldo where we’re lucky to have them and we should enjoy them. They’ve done remarkable things, and that’s probably an understatement. But I felt as a centre-half he’s just been outstanding.
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Personally, I find it hard to see what more a defender could’ve done in order to win the award. Van Dijk was at the spine of a Liverpool team that won the Champions League against all odds.
A team that overturned a 3-0 deficit to Messi’s Barcelona, keeping a clean sheet on the greatest night Anfield has ever seen.
I don’t think the Dutchman will lose much sleep about it but it does beg the question, what does a defender have to do to win such an award?
The last defender to win such a prestigious individual award was Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, when he won the Ballon d’Or after Italy’s World Cup triumph.
As the Messi and Ronaldo era starts too finish, new stars will emerge in their prime years and I’m sure Van Dijk will continue to pick up awards throughout his career. I think he will beat both Messi and Ronaldo to the Ballon d’Or in a few months time, but whatever happens, it has been a 2019 to remember for the Dutch colossus.
