Gini Wijnaldum has been given the proud honour of captaining the Netherlands in the absence of Virgil van Dijk.
The 29-year-old has become a real stalwart for Liverpool over the past four years, proving to be one of the more underrated members of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
His impact is appreciated by Klopp and the same appears to apply to his international manager Frank de Boer.
With Van Dijk out injured for the foreseeable future, De Boer needed to find a new skipper for the upcoming games against Spain, Bosnia and Poland.
Speaking to NOS [via Sport Witness], De Boer confirmed that the Liverpool man will lead his country:
It’s of course sad that Virgil is not there. That’s a great loss. You only need to look at his achievements in recent years and what kind of personality he is within the group. But as always: as the one king falls away, the next king must rise.
Gini is a real connector. You saw that when the racism issue was topical. He then took the pioneering role.
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Wijnaldum may not earn the same amount of praise as some of his Reds teammates, especially from rival supporters, but he is a key cog in the machine.
The fact that he has been made captain of the Netherlands also sums up his quality and reputation in the game – you simply cannot skipper a nation with such footballing pedigree and not be a top player.
From a Liverpool perspective, the hope is that Wijnaldum comes through the three games unscathed, in order to be ready for the visit of Leicester City in the Premier League on November 21st.
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