{"id":1106352,"date":"2019-09-14T14:56:18","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T13:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1106352"},"modified":"2019-09-14T14:56:44","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T13:56:44","slug":"virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Dutch centre-back has been instrumental for Liverpool since joining in January 2018 and was recently named as Uefa &#8216;Men&#8217;s Player of the Year&#8217; beating off stave competition from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Almost got him: Five key things to know\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Virgil van Dijk joined Liverpool from Southampton for \u00a375m in January 2018.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s since been integral to Jurgen Klopp&#8217;s side, helping them win a sixth European Cup in 2019.<\/li>\n<li>His performances earned him the title of Uefa Men&#8217;s Player of the Year.<\/li>\n<li>Steve Bruce has revealed he could have brought the Dutchman from Celtic to Hull City.<\/li>\n<li>However, nothing concrete took place and the current Newcastle United boss rued that missed opportunity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7367517-de-bruyne-is-on-course-to-break-henry-s-most-impressive-premier-league-record<\/p>\n<p>Prior to joining England&#8217;s top division, Van Dijk was overlooked by the Netherlands&#8217; big three clubs \u2013 Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven \u2013 whilst plying his trade for FC Groningen, their loss was Celtic&#8217;s gain and the Breda-born man-mountain quickly enhanced his reputation.<\/p>\n<p>It was through stellar performances there which attracted Southampton, then managed by current Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman. However, things could have turned out differently as Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce has outlined.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u2018When Beller\u00edn and Tierney are Back\u2026\u2019 Watford vs Arsenal Premier League Preview w\/Nick Bright\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WVkcIGjKT44?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/sqwk.at\/Squawka-Sub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Virgil van Dijk: wow, what a player. We all know how good Liverpool are up front but signing him and the keeper [Alisson] gave Liverpool the backbone they needed, just took them to the next level,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/football\/2019\/sep\/13\/newcastle-manager-steve-bruce-virgil-van-dijk-hull-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I could have taken him [Van Dijk] to Hull. I had dinner with Kenny Dalglish and the owner of Celtic, Dermot Desmond, in Barbados \u2013 I\u2019m name-dropping now \u2013 and Desmond was waxing lyrical about the best players he&#8217;s had.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He was saying: \u2018[Henrik] Larsson is definitely, definitely the best I&#8217;ve seen play for Celtic in my ownership but what I can\u2019t understand is nobody has gone for Van Dijk.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought: &#8216;That&#8217;s interesting, he&#8217;s seen a lot of football over the last 12 years,&#8217; so I tried to get him before he went to Southampton but I had no chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ballon d&#8217;Or hopes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Following his recent crowning as Uefa&#8217;s best, Van Dijk is hoping to collect two further individual prizes. He&#8217;ll once again duke it out with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for The Best FIFA Men&#8217;s Player award before all eyes on France Football&#8217;s prestigious accolade, the Ballon d&#8217;Or.<\/p>\n<p>Since the awards inception in 1955 no fewer than three defenders have earned the &#8216;golden ball&#8217;: Franz Beckenbauer won it twice (1972 and 1976) before Matthias Sammer (1996) and Fabio Cannavaro (2006).<\/p>\n<p>As natural in these moments, Van Dijk has his supporters, including from an unexpected place. Sergio Ramos, who isn&#8217;t the most popular in the red half of Merseyside, has backed the Dutchman to go all the way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Van Dijk wins it, it will be on sufficient merit &#8211; great defender,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/sport\/football\/virgil-van-dijk-ballon-dor-winner-sergio-ramos-award-not-just-ronaldo-messi-a4233346.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a defender, it&#8217;s harder. It seems as though it&#8217;s not just Messi and Cristiano [now]. It seems there&#8217;s a route opening [for others].&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City. The 28-year-old Dutch centre-back has been instrumental for Liverpool since joining in January 2018 and was recently named as Uefa &#8216;Men&#8217;s Player of the Year&#8217; beating off stave competition from Lionel Messi&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1098850,"parent":0,"menu_order":5165,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1106352","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce | Squawka | EN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Squawka | EN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@squawka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mohamed Moallim\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c\"},\"headline\":\"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-14T13:56:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\"},\"wordCount\":553,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\",\"name\":\"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce | Squawka | EN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-14T13:56:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00\",\"description\":\"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Squawka\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Squawka | EN\",\"description\":\"Football News, Stats, and More...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c\",\"name\":\"Mohamed Moallim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mohamed Moallim\"},\"description\":\"I'm a freelance writer who specialises in the beautiful game. With over ten years of experience, I have been published in the Independent and Daily Mirror and numerous magazines, including FourFourTwo and Champions Journal. I've also appeared as a Dutch football expert on Talksport and BBC Five Live. When I'm not working, you can find me studying all fields of knowledge no matter how obscure.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/iammoallim\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/mohamed-moallim\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce | Squawka | EN","description":"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce","og_description":"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/","og_site_name":"Squawka | EN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SquawkaFootballNews\/","article_modified_time":"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@squawka","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/"},"author":{"name":"Mohamed Moallim","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c"},"headline":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce","datePublished":"2019-09-14T13:56:18+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/"},"wordCount":553,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/","name":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce | Squawka | EN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg","datePublished":"2019-09-14T13:56:18+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-14T13:56:44+00:00","description":"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2019\/07\/23173229\/virgil-van-dijk-preseason-2019.jpg","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/virgil-van-dijk-hull-city-steve-bruce-liverpool\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Squawka","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Virgil van Dijk could have become a Hull City player, says Bruce"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/","name":"Squawka | EN","description":"Football News, Stats, and More...","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/46582d436cbfa44c50f11dd9e9e6f22c","name":"Mohamed Moallim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/745e1c4126cef29da74a30842230f6dd19f94a0b1223e2b89a1863093c4643ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mohamed Moallim"},"description":"I'm a freelance writer who specialises in the beautiful game. With over ten years of experience, I have been published in the Independent and Daily Mirror and numerous magazines, including FourFourTwo and Champions Journal. I've also appeared as a Dutch football expert on Talksport and BBC Five Live. When I'm not working, you can find me studying all fields of knowledge no matter how obscure.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/iammoallim"],"url":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/author\/mohamed-moallim\/"}]}},"yoast_title":"","yoast_description":"Steve Bruce has revealed there was an opportunity for him to sign Virgil van Dijk when he was in charge of Hull City.","yoast_keyword":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1106352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1106352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1098850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106352"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=1106352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}