Virgil van Dijk lost out on the Ballon d’Or to Barcelona star Lionel Messi, but the big centre half did us all proud by pushing the best player of our generation so far.
It turns out, the Liverpool defender only lost out on the top spot by a measly 0.3% of the votes – which equates to a total of seven votes, as per Bleacher Report.
Messi vs. Van Dijk was the closest Ballon d'Or race this century pic.twitter.com/cs4gzuL52k
— B/R Football (@brfootball) December 3, 2019
I mean that’s close. Like really close.
But van Dijk isn’t bitter about losing out to Messi – in fact, he shared a lovely message on social media today – and I’ve not doubt he’d have shared the same sentiment even if his joke about Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t taken the wrong way.
MORE: Ronaldo’s sister responds poorly to obvious joke by van Dijk with lengthy rant
The big man congratulated Messi on winning his record sixth Ballon d’Or, and said he was humbled by the reception he received in France.
He also said that it was an honour to be placed second, either side of the Argentine hero and Ronaldo, and referred to them as two of the greatest ever footballers.
Rounding off the message, van Dijk thanks the fans and his team-mates at Liverpool and the Dutch National Team – who he says it’s only possible because of them.
Take a read of the full post below:
Ballon d’Or ✨ pic.twitter.com/yu5wcziEBz
— Virgil van Dijk (@VirgilvDijk) December 3, 2019