Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk named in IFFHS World Team of the Year

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Virgil van Dijk made the IFFHS World Team of the Year for 2022. The Liverpool defender has come in for some criticism this season.

The IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) named their Team of the Year for 2022 on Wednesday. It was an interesting XI, too, with Josko Gvardiol getting the nod at centre-back after a great World Cup.

And the Croatian partnered a Liverpool player in the side. Virgil van Dijk is there as the other centre-back, despite a season in which he’s faced plenty of criticism.

Van Dijk has had individual games this season where he simply hasn’t looked right. Then there were claims earlier in the campaign that he wouldn’t get in the Everton side.

But the IFFHS believe he’s been one of the world’s best defenders across the year. And we can only imagine they were incredibly high on Van Dijk’s efforts last season. Liverpool nearly won the lot, of course, and he was a massive part of that.

We also thought Van Dijk enjoyed a good World Cup, even if a very defensive Netherlands could have gone further. All in all, we imagine the Dutchman would fall short of many people’s Team of the Year but we’re glad to see him still getting recognition for last season.

Virgil van Dijk makes Team of the Year

The whole team is as follows:

Thibaut Courtois
Achraf Hakimi
Josko Gvardiol
Virgil van Dijk
Alphonso Davies
Luka Modric
Kevin De Bruyne
Lionel Messi
Erling Haaland
Karim Benzema
Kylian Mbappé

We can’t imagine too many could argue with that. We’d make a case for Andy Robertson at left back and Alisson is always a contender in goal, but the team is a solid one.

An awful start to this season robs many Reds of their chances, though. We can only hope they turn things around soon and get into the running for 2023.