Atletico Madrid’s marquee signing this summer, Joao Felix, has waxed lyrical about Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
“Who’s the most difficult to dribble one on one? Virgil van Dijk,” he told Bleacher Report, when asked his opinion on the world’s best defender.
Not only that, but the Portuguese sensation has named his All-Time XI during a Q&A session with fans, and included our Dutchman as his only centre-back!
In fact, considering Dani Alves and Marcelo are offensive to the point they’re actually bad defenders, van Dijk and goalkeeper David de Gea are the only players in his side willing to try and stop the ball going in rather than scoring at the other end.
Joao Felix’s All-Time XI: De Gea; Alves; van Dijk; Marcelo; Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Xavi; Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Kaka
In fairness, Felix’s side says more about his age than anything else. After all, the lad is 19-years-old, which is pretty scary considering he just cost over £100m for Atletico Madrid to snare him from Benfica.
From what we’ve seen, he’s a jaw-dropping talent, but obviously has a lot to do in replacing Antoine Griezmann’s productivity, with the Frenchman joining Barcelona last week.