Virgil van Dijk: A Defiant Encore at 35

Virgil van Dijk has heard the whispers. He knows the numbers. Thirty-five years old, final year of his deal, a defence being ripped up and rebuilt around him. For most centre-backs, this is the long fade-out.

For Liverpool’s captain, it feels more like a defiant encore.

A captain in the middle of the storm

Van Dijk turned 35 last month. He is into the last year of the two-year extension he signed in April 2025. On paper, that usually signals the beginning of the end. On the grass and in the dressing room, he remains the reference point.

Around him, the landscape has shifted. Giovanni Leoni is 19. Jeremy Jacquet is 21. Neither has played a minute of Premier League football for Liverpool. Joe Gomez is again wrestling with injuries. Ronald Araujo is about to arrive from Barcelona on an emergency loan, a short-term fix in a long-term rebuild.

In the middle of all that uncertainty stands Van Dijk. Still the one constant. Still the one everyone looks at when the questions get serious.

This is Andoni Iraola’s third week in charge and already he has discovered what Jurgen Klopp and Arne Slot learned before him: when Liverpool wobble, Van Dijk is the steadying hand.

Six thousand minutes and no sign of surrender

The last 12 months have pushed him to the edge. No outfield player across Europe’s top five leagues played more minutes than Van Dijk last season. Before the World Cup, he had already logged 5,841 minutes. Then he went to Qatar and played every second of the Netherlands’ run to the last-32.

By the end of it, the total stood at 6,141 minutes over 69 appearances for club and country. An average of 89 minutes per game. For a player in his mid-30s. For a player who tore his ACL in October 2020.

The workload was so heavy that Van Dijk did something unusual this summer: he asked for more time off.

“I definitely asked for a good break because I felt like I needed it, not only physically but mentally as well,” he explained after his first pre-season outing, a 3-2 defeat to Monaco on Sunday. The captain had only six to eight days of training behind him but was “very keen to get minutes” and, crucially, came through unscathed.

That break wasn’t a luxury. It was a necessity.

Skipping the tour, choosing the grind

Van Dijk didn’t just want a holiday. He wanted control.

He personally requested to skip Liverpool’s pre-season tour of the United States after his three-week post-World Cup break. No long flights. No jet lag. No time-zone gymnastics at the very moment his body needed rhythm.

“For me it was key I didn't want to go to America because I didn't want to get jet lag and after come back from that as well,” he said. Instead, he stayed at the AXA Training Centre, putting in the work before the rest of the squad returned.

“I felt like having a couple of extra days at the AXA, doing the testing before the team was there and getting ready for when the team was back to immediately crack on, I felt that was for me personally the best way.”

That is the reality of a veteran who understands his body and his responsibilities. No romance, just calculation. He knows Liverpool will ask him to play every three days again. He intends to be ready.

Iraola’s lieutenant

If Iraola needed a leader to anchor a transition, he has one who has already nailed his colours to the mast.

“It has been absolutely fine [working with Iraola], we had a great conversation in the first week when it got announced and the main thing for him to know is that I am here for him regardless,” Van Dijk said.

“Anything he needs, wants to know, wants me to do for the team or whatever I am here for him and hopefully we will be successful this season and that's what we want.”

There is respect, too, for what came before. “Nothing to take away from Arne and his staff, we had an amazing time together, obviously last year a disappointment. This year we have a new manager who has new ways of preparation. So we have to adapt to a new staff, different training methods but I liked working under Arne and I am sure I will like working under the new manager.”

New ideas, new methods, same anchor.

“Are you going to say I’m 35 and I can’t do it?”

For all the talk of age, Van Dijk is having none of the quiet fade into the background.

“Yes [I'm ready to go again],” he said, bristling slightly. “Are you going to say I'm 35 years old and I can't do it?”

He knows what the modern game demands. He also knows what he demands of himself.

“At the end of the day, you have to look after yourself. You have to be, I wouldn't say lucky, but you have to do everything in your power. That is the bare minimum for me because I feel the responsibility to be ready for each and every game. We play every three days. Between games, at home, at the training ground, you have to do everything in your power to be ready to play again.”

He calls himself a “late bloomer” and shrugs at the implications. “I feel fine and I want to make all the fans proud all over the world that support us wherever we go, and that is by winning games and by showing what it means to wear the shirt every time, and that is for me the bare minimum anyway, so we keep going.”

The message is clear: he is not here to manage his decline. He is here to compete.

A new era, same standard

The departures of Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah — just a year after a major overhaul of the squad — have stripped away more of the Klopp-era core. Under Iraola, Liverpool are unmistakably entering a new phase.

Van Dijk, heading into his 10th season at Anfield, feels it as sharply as anyone.

“It definitely feels like a bit of a transition, for sure,” he admitted. “It is down to everyone associated with Liverpool to make sure we are building something that will be successful for years to come.

This year, we want to be successful, but there is a lot of work still to be done.”

He knows the scale of the task. Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League. The calendar is brutal and unforgiving.

“We all know how difficult it is to be playing in the Premier League, the League Cup, the FA Cup, and the Champions League, so we need everyone at their best. We need to be consistent and win more games. Let's see what the next couple of weeks are going to bring [in the transfer window]. Any quality we can add to the team will definitely be welcome so let's see.”

Liverpool’s back line is being reshaped in real time. Young defenders are arriving. Araujo is on the way. The squad is evolving.

In the middle of it all, Virgil van Dijk stands there, 35 years old, still defiant, still demanding, still convinced he can carry the weight of another season. The contract clock is ticking — but who, right now, is brave enough to tell him he can’t?