Liverpool considered a move for Stefan de Vrij before signing Virgil van Dijk
Liverpool are said to have considered signing Stefan de Vrij before they ultimately splashed the cash on Virgil van Dijk (h/t Echo).
The club were said to have done quite some work behind the scenes leading up to signing a centre-back in 2018. The Reds were believed to be interested in signing a central defender as they believed their much-vaunted attack was suffering due to defensive errors.
While we all know how van Dijk’s move has paid dividends in the form of a Champions League and Premier League, there was another serious option being considered by Liverpool.
Stefan de Vrij, a Lazio player at the time, was under consideration because of having the attributes wanted by Liverpool.
Former Everton player Ian Atkins who was also their Head of Recruitment from 2012 to 2016, was close to de Vrij. He became an advisor of sorts to the young de Vrij. Atkins revealed to Liverpool Echo about the Reds’ interest in the player at one point.
“I know at one point Liverpool were very interested. Stefan’s contract was up with Lazio and Inter were very strong on him and offered him a strong contract but then Barcelona came in.
“Liverpool had spoken to him but came up with a great one to be fair, they just felt Van Dijk could play on the edge a little bit more than Stefan, and they were right because Klopp likes to squeeze and push to the halfway line and Van Dijk was a little bit more mobile. I said that to Stefan and he accepted it to be fair.”
In the end, de Vrij ran down his contract at Lazio and joined Inter Milan on a free transfer in the summer of 2018, with Liverpool signing Van Dijk just six months prior to that. However, Atkins spoke about a possible partnership between the two at Liverpool.
“There was some interest in taking Stefan as well but that never materialised. If Liverpool would have signed De Vrij and Van Dijk they would have been the best pairing in Europe.”
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The partnership of de Vrij and van Dijk has done quite well for the Netherlands national team. But there shouldn’t be any regret over Liverpool missing out on him given how brilliantly van Dijk has done.
