{"id":168240,"date":"2025-06-08T18:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168240\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T18:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T18:24:12","slug":"liverpool-star-virgil-van-dijk-makes-admission-ahead-of-return-to-former-club-i-cant-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168240\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk makes admission ahead of return to former club – ‘I can’t wait’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virgil van Dijk is currently on international duty with the Netherlands’ next match a poignant one for the Liverpool captain\"NetherlandsLiverpool and Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk(Image: Marcel van Dorst \/ EYE4images\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Virgil van Dijk is set to return to former club FC Groningen this week when the Netherlands national team face Malta in a FIFA World Cup qualifying at the club’s Euroborg Stadion home. Once upon a time the Reds’ defender was a fledgling Eredivisie star, making his first 66 senior appearances for Groningen between 2010 and 2013.<\/p>\n

He later played for Celtic and Southampton before joining Liverpool<\/a> for \u00a375million in 2017. This coming Tuesday Van Dijk<\/a> will be able to play in the stadium he once called home, though, and admits he ‘can’t wait’ to return.<\/p>\n

“I can’t wait to go back to Groningen. It will be the second time since I left. That means a lot to me. That’s where it all started for me as a professional footballer,” the 33-year-old told broadcaster NOS via De Telegraaf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Florian Wirtz Liverpool transfer latest as \u00a3118m Bayer Leverkusen compromise emerges<\/a>READ MORE: Arne Slot given perfect Jeremie Frimpong blueprint to combat looming Liverpool issue<\/a><\/p>\n

The qualifier against Malta will be the second in quick succession, tagged onto a Premier League<\/a>-winning 2024\/25 campaign in which Van Dijk was fielded 49 times in all competitions by Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Whilst a summer break may be what he desires most after nine months of action, the defender admits: “Of course, that’s just the reality.<\/p>\n

“But it’s not mustard after the meal, because I want to go to the World Cup.”<\/p>\n

“We played well for most of the match. Very well for an hour, the other half hour could be better,” he commented on the Dutch national team’s 2-0 victory against Finland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“It has been mentioned that we were 1-0 behind in, I don’t know how many matches. Now it went well. You want to entertain everyone, but you also have to deal with an opponent who is going to put more pressure. I am very satisfied.”<\/p>\n

Van Dijk alongside Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and Jeremie Frimpong will all wrap up their seasons against Malta, then they will be able to head off for their holidays.<\/p>\n

Arne Slot’s side reconvene for pre-season training next month with the aim of retaining their Premier League<\/a> title as well as adding more silverware to the collection.<\/p>\n

In Van Dijk’s case, he will be doing so happily under a new two-year contract agreed before the summer became hectic for the Reds in the transfer market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Virgil van Dijk is currently on international duty with the Netherlands’ next match a poignant one for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,763,16,15,1465],"class_list":{"0":"post-168240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-liverpool-fc","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-virgil-van-dijk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114649147857844787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}