Liverpool legend ‘could possibly be off to Saudi’ as he takes summer season to ‘weigh choices’
Virgil Van Dijk says he will spend the rest of the summer thinking about his future for club and country.
The Liverpool defender has just one year left on his Anfield contract and at the age of 33 could be tempted to call time on his international career after Holland’s Euros 2024 exit to England. There are suggestions in his homeland that Van Dijk may be a target for Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq and the chance to earn a fortune in the Saudi Pro League would be a tempting one.
Losing the classy centre-back would be a huge blow for new Reds boss Arne Slot. But Van Dijk said: “It will be a summer of reflection, thinking carefully about what I want, at club and national level.
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![He has played more than 60 games this year](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33224658.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Netherlands-v-England-Semi-Final-UEFA-EURO-2024.jpg)
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“Then we will go for it again. But now I’m going to recover first. It has been a very long season, in which I put a lot of emotional energy, which is normal in my case. That doesn’t take away from the fact that it has been very tough.”
Van Dijk is close friends with former Liverpool team-mate Gini Wijnaldum, who joined Al-Ettifaq last year.
He has won every honour possible at Liverpool after signing from Southampton in a £75m deal in January 2017. Van Dijk has been capped 75 times for Holland but injury ruled him out of the last World Cup in 2022 and this was his first major tournament.
Dutch boss Ronald Koeman will be hoping his captain will lead the team into the World Cup in two years and that his words were due to his bitter disappointment of Holland’s heartbreaking semi-final defeat, with Ollie Watkins netting a 90th-minute winner.
![It's a big summer for Van Dijk](https://i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk/incoming/article33224659.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_Netherlands-v-England-UEFA-Euro-2024-Semifinal.jpg)
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Whatever he decides, Van Dijk believes that the Dutch team have a bright future. He added: “I have every confidence in the future. It is a great team in my eyes – and an excellent coach. So we have to keep faith in it and look positively to the future.
“Now everyone is allowed to mourn and be disappointed. When you get a goal against in the last second, it sucks. What prevails is disappointment. Your dream shatters. That’s very emotional.
“The Champions League final I once lost was also very tough. I put all my energy into winning and then it gets emotional at the end because the tournament is over.”
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