Ballon Dor 2019: 3 reasons why Virgil Van Dijk should win the award

Ballon Dor 2019: 3 reasons why Van Dijk should win the Ballon d’Or award, as France Football magazine will declare result tonight.

France Football gives the Ballon d’Or award every year to the best footballer in a calendar year, as voted by the experts. Virgil Van Dijk is among the favourites to win the award as he had an extraordinary campaign with Liverpool last season.

Liverpool had the highest number of inclusions in the 30-men nominees released last month, with 7 players from Jurgen Klopp’s contingent. Among them, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Van Dijk are the prominent names.

And the Dutch defender is deemed to be the favourite to hold the title among them. Although, at the same time, the closest competition Van Dijk is going to have is with Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.

The Argentine International had an exceptional year and led his side to the Champions League semi-final and La Liga triumph. At the individual level, nobody is even close to Messi’s stats.

Thus, Van Dijk does have a huge competition ahead of the Gala, hence we will reason out 3 points claiming why Van Dijk should win the award ahead of all tonight.

Also read: Virgil Van Dijk speaks on possibility of Lionel Messi winning Ballon D’or

1. Extraordinary defensive stat

Virgil Van Dijk was the epitome of defensive proficiency last season, as he boasted 65 games without being dribbled past until he was finally beaten by Gabriel Jesus in the community shield game.

His solid defending enhanced the quality of defence by the Reds and eventually making them win the Champions League match. This stat certainly proved Van Dijk’s consistency and dominance in the game.

His performances truly set an example and made him win UEFA Player of the year award and PFA Player of the year award. Which certainly declared him the best defender in the world.

naturally, Van Dijk can’t compete with Van Dijk in terms of goals but he certainly does have a special achievement along with him. Not to forget, even Messi failed to go past him in the two matches he played against him in 2019.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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