Saudi club want to break transfer bank for Celtic hero as market ‘bomb’ prepared for making big summer splash

admin | June 14, 2024 | Other Clubs | No Comments

The defender is one of the world’s top defensive names but Celtic played a big part in his journey.
A Celtic favourite is said to be wanted for a record-breaking deal in Saudi Arabia.

Virgil Van Dijk is one of the world’s leading defenders at Liverpool these days, but Celtic played a huge part in his journey. They brought him to the UK from Groningen in 2013, staying two years before joining Southampton, and he’s been with Liverpool since 2018.

According to Marca, Al Nassr are wanting to bring him to the Saudi Pro League. They state: “Al Nassr prepares the market bomb. The Saudi team has met with Van Dijk to join the project in an attempt to build an even more competitive team to take dominance from Al Hilal.

“The general director of Al Nassr met with the Dutchman’s representative on Tuesday night, putting on the table a contract that would make the Dutchman the highest-paid defender in the world.”

The former Celtic defender has already hinted he’s looking forward to working with new Liverpool boss Arne Slot. He said recently: “Obviously I have full trust in the club and all the decisions going forward.

“It’s exciting as well. Change is always a bit in the unknown, but I have got full confidence and am looking forward to the new season already. 100 per cent, but success is not guaranteed.

“We are going to work our socks off in order to make it happen (improve on third) and we have a good coach coming in, a good backroom staff. We are a very good team. Let’s see what happens.”

Van Dijk said on the Rest of Football Podcast this year of time at Celtic: “The city is divided with the two clubs and it’s amazing to have played it at least once. It’s an intense battle but at the time when I was there, it was more intense outside the game than the actual game.

“It was amazing, we really enjoyed it over there. We met some amazing people that we’re still in touch with. The city in general was very bubbly, it’s amazing. We just enjoyed it. Of course, you come across some fans of the other team but same goes here in Liverpool, we have the same in this regard.

“It’s still sort of respectful, in a way. The fans from the other team that you come across, they are very fanatic about their team but it’s still in a respectful way in the way they approach you.”

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