Virgil van Dijk likes to spend weekends or weekday evenings with Liverpool’s youth. Watch matches of the Under 13, Under 15 or Under 17 of the ‘Reds’. Regularly on his own. Just enjoy pure football and pure fun.

It is a way for 34-year-old Van Dijk to realize where he comes from. Back to the beginning. “As a little boy from Willem II, I always had a hard time. I only came into the picture with the Dutch Under 19 team. We played a practice match against South Korea to determine who would go to the final tournament, I was eliminated.”

He is now the captain of the big Dutch team and the World Cup final could be his hundredth international match.

The moment he dropped out for the Dutch under-19s was just before the 2010 World Cup, when the great Dutch team with Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie, among others, reached the World Cup final.

“I never really dreamed, never could believe that I could play in the Dutch national team, that I would become captain and even take over Frank de Boer’s record,” says the native of Breda. “I’m very proud of that.”

Five years after that rejection, Van Dijk made his debut at the age of 24 as a player for Southampton in the Dutch team, against Kazakhstan in Astana. It was a time when the Netherlands had ended up in a deep valley after third place at the 2014 World Cup. A time of transition.

“When I look back now, it was personally great that I experienced that,” says Van Dijk. “I was able to learn a lot from Robin, Arjen, Wesley, Dirk Kuijt, Nigel de Jong. The way they experience matches, how they prepare, the mental aspect.”

From Ronald Koeman’s first period, things went to a crescendo with the Dutch team and Van Dijk became a key player, with Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong and Georginio Wijnaldum at his side. “Ultimately you have to do it yourself and that worked out very well in that first period with Koeman.”

Due to a serious and complicated knee injury, Van Dijk had to miss the 2021 European Championship and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar under Louis van Gaal became his first final tournament. The Dutch team failed in the quarter-finals. The body check against the Argentinian Leandro Paredes became iconic.

“It was a bit part of that match,” says Van Dijk. “I do everything for my team. If someone shoots the ball with full force into our dugout and if someone makes a hard tackle on Nathan Aké, my good friend, something will happen.”

After the European Championship two years ago, Van Dijk now has 92 international matches to his name and a record number of 76 matches as captain on the eve of a new World Cup. Japan is the opponent in Dallas on Sunday. What does it take for a successful World Cup?

“You need a lot more for that than good football players,” says Van Dijk. “We have the qualities, but we also need solidarity, that we will go through fire for each other. That we as players win and that the Netherlands wins. I hope so, because I and the rest of the boys want to create something special.”

Becoming world champion is possible according to Van Dijk. “Let’s manifest that we are going to do it. We have to have the faith, we have to radiate it. There are plenty of difficult moments ahead, but we have to get through them together.”

It will probably be his last World Cup. He does not yet know whether it will also be his last final tournament. In any case, it is not his fitness. Since June 2025, Van Dijk has played 5,931 minutes for club and country, more than any other player from the five European top competitions.

If Van Dijk plays everything in this tournament and the Dutch team reaches the World Cup final, he will even play his 100th international match on July 19 in New York. A mischievous smile appeared on Van Dijk’s face at a press conference on Wednesday.

“I’m certainly aware of that. It would be very special, it would are.”