Before shining with Liverpool and being honored by the PFA, the world’s best defender once had to earn a living by washing dishes.

People at Willem II – the club where Virgil Van Dijk began his career – didn’t see any potential in this player. In his youth, alongside training and playing for Willem II’s youth team, Van Dijk also had to wash dishes at a small restaurant to make ends meet. The young man was described as “kind-hearted, but occasionally rebellious.” “He was like a little mouse,” recalled Robby Hendriks, Van Dijk’s youth team coach. Willem II also didn’t have plans to sign a professional contract with this “little mouse.”

Initially underrated at the start of his career, Van Dijk has progressed rapidly to become one of the world’s top defenders in football today.

Let’s fast forward 10 years from then. Van Dijk, at the age of 27, receives the Player of the Year award from the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) in England. If Liverpool could clinch the Premier League title after 29 years of waiting, he would be the main contributor. It’s a remarkable journey of ascension, persistence, the fruition of a good plan, dedication, and some luck. The question is: how did he do it?

Now let’s go back 10 years. At the age of 17, Van Dijk had a growth spurt, gaining an additional 18 cm in height. Before that, as he admitted to the BBC, Van Dijk was just a short, slow right-back with shaky knees. Playing as a center-back at that time was an almost unthinkable prospect for Van Dijk.

But a spectacular transformation saw Van Dijk towering after a year. Looking at him, one immediately recalls two other tall defenders who had made a name for themselves at Willem II in the 1990s, Jaap Stam and Sami Hyypia. However, despite his height, Van Dijk still couldn’t make it to the first team, as the club thought he “had many limitations.” That was revealed by the reserve team coach at the time, Edwin Hermans, in a recent interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.

The truth is, Willem II wasn’t a top club in terms of scouting. A younger player in their academy at that time, Frenkie de Jong, also didn’t receive any attention. So when Ajax proposed to sign De Jong, Willem II agreed immediately. With Ajax having too many players, they loaned De Jong back to Willem II. The result was that he only played once, for a mere 20 minutes. Now, De Jong is a superstar at Ajax and is preparing to join Barcelona in the summer.

Van Dijk began his professional football career at Willem II, but even they failed to recognize the great talent in this rough diamond.

Van Dijk might have become a full-time dishwasher if it weren’t for the intervention of the Koeman family. Martin Koeman, a former Dutch international and father of two other footballers – Erwin and Ronald – decided to bring Van Dijk to his club, FC Groningen. Willem II let go of their 18-year-old defender on a free transfer without any regrets in 2010.

After relocating to the northern region, Van Dijk rode his bike to training every day because he didn’t have a driver’s license. Groningen looked at him with caution. The only one who believed Van Dijk had the ability to play for the first team at the club at that time was… himself.

Eventually, after tirelessly training with the reserves, Van Dijk finally got the chance to don the Groningen jersey for the first time on May 29, 2011. Three months shy of his 20th birthday and after four times being on the bench, Van Dijk made his professional debut against ADO Den Haag. He committed a foul that led to a goal conceded, but he made up for it by scoring a brace. That impressive debut set the stage for Van Dijk’s career. He quickly became a key figure in defense.

However, that doesn’t mean everything was smooth sailing for Van Dijk. At the age of 20, he nearly died. After several days without a diagnosis, Van Dijk suffered a stroke, had to be hospitalized for emergency treatment for peritonitis and kidney poisoning. He recalled in Voetbal International magazine: “I remember lying in bed, all I could see were tubes and wires. I felt shattered. I couldn’t move. For the first time in my life, football became secondary. My mother and I prayed. We discussed what might happen. There were times I had to sign papers, like a will. So that when I died, my mother could get some money. I saw the grim reaper, and that feeling was not comfortable at all.”

Groningen – the former club of Robben – is where Van Dijk’s talent was recognized and he was given more opportunities to play.

Fortunately, the crisis has passed. Even more miraculously, after the surgery, Van Dijk could return to playing football normally.

His teammate and roommate at Groningen, Tim Keurntjes, noted that during this time, Van Dijk had become a complete defender: tall, powerful, and skillful. Van Dijk is very grateful that he used to be… short. Because in the past, being short, he had to analyze situations a lot. With short legs, he couldn’t risk dribbling. Being short, he couldn’t contest 50-50 balls. The ability to read the game, anticipate, and intercept was the only way for Van Dijk to beat taller opponents. In other words, thanks to being short, Van Dijk learned to think in the traditional Dutch way: always thinking about space, like “am I standing in the right position? What will happen next?”.

Robert Maaskant, Groningen’s coach at the time, also noticed another quality of Van Dijk: his vision. This guy learned very quickly and continuously. Despite starting from a small club, with a career that could be called late-blooming, Van Dijk still believed he could rise to the top class. Without any exceptional strength, Van Dijk did this by trying to limit his weaknesses. Perhaps because the level at Groningen was not high, Van Dijk’s biggest challenge during this period was concentration. It can be said that Van Dijk was born to play for big teams, especially suitable for tense matches, because the more focused he is, the better he plays.

Van Dijk matured rapidly at Groningen, and he performed exceptionally well in big matches against opponents like Ajax, PSV, or Feyenoord.

Another notable aspect of Van Dijk’s career is that every two years, he moved up a notch in his profession. In 2013, he was ready for a new challenge. Turning down offers from Brighton and a lucrative proposal from Krasnodar in Russia, Van Dijk waited for an invitation from a top club in the Netherlands. However, that invitation never came.

Groningen even called Ajax’s technical director, Marc Overmars, to offer Van Dijk for sale. But Overmars refused and used the money to sign another young defender, Mike Van der Hoorn. At that time, Van der Hoorn was playing for Swansea in the English Championship, while Van Dijk was competing in the Premier League and Champions League with Liverpool.

So in 2013, Van Dijk decided to join Celtic. At the stopover in Scotland, he became an irreplaceable center-back in a rock-solid defense. Celtic won the Scottish title two years in a row and continued to progress. However, the Dutch national team coach, Louis van Gaal, did not include him in the World Cup squad. Instead, he called up Terence Kongolo (now at Huddersfield, a recently relegated Premier League club) and Bruno Martins Indi (now at Stoke City in the Championship).

But Van Dijk didn’t blame Van Gaal. He told the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “Back then, I didn’t have the status I have now. The Scottish league is not regarded as one of the top football leagues in Europe.”

“Back then, I didn’t have the status I have now” is a completely accurate statement. In fact, Van Gaal also sent scouts to watch Van Dijk play in the Scottish league. However, the reports were not favorable. In the videos sent back, Van Gaal also noticed that Van Dijk was often caught off guard by strikers sneaking behind him. In an interview with Volkskrant, he also pointed out that Van Dijk didn’t know how to “actively defend,” meaning pressing to dominate space before the striker touched the ball. The easiest thing for a tall defender is to wait for the striker to hold the ball and then push them into a duel. But the tactics of the Dutch national team (and now Liverpool) always require defenders to press very actively. Back then, Van Dijk wasn’t ready to absorb the essence of top-level football tactics. However, under the tutelage of Jurgen Klopp, Van Dijk has truly become one of the best defenders in terms of active pressing.

The two Scottish championships with Celtic truly helped Van Dijk step into the spotlight, thanks to the opportunity to play in the Champions League.

Before working with Klopp, Van Dijk had the opportunity to work with another excellent coach, Ronald Koeman. In 2015, this fellow countryman brought him to Southampton. Van Dijk finally earned his first national team cap at the age of 24 – not too old, but perhaps considered late compared to his current national team partner Matthijs de Ligt, who made his debut at 17. After two years of progress at Southampton, Van Dijk moved to Liverpool at the age of 26.

The £75 million deal (£100 million in dollars) made him the most expensive defender in history. Van Dijk often says he never thinks about that number. But it’s truly a huge figure. Few would have imagined that the same person was once pushed away by Willem II without a second thought, and was acquired by Celtic for nearly $3.5 million in transfer fees.

In his debut match at Anfield, Van Dijk scored the winning goal against Everton in the Merseyside derby. The more he played, the more this imposing figure of a defender progressed. Opponents were amazed to find him much quicker and stronger than they were. Not only tall and robust, Van Dijk is also extremely intelligent and confident.

Looking at him, one sees a player who, despite being at the peak of his profession, remains down-to-earth and likable. He stands apart from the millionaire stars around him – players with renowned agents, advertising deals, or a closet full of designer brands. Van Dijk remains a humble person, occasionally watching his teammates play in the Dutch second division. It reminds him of his modest past. In a match between the Netherlands and France last November, he was seen giving his rain jacket to a young mascot. No one noticed the girl was cold.

The Netherlands national team coach, Ronald Koeman, saw in Van Dijk the qualities of a leader, a top-class defender.

At the age of 27 Van Dijk possesses a mature mind and youthful legs. His focus makes him prone to very few mistakes compared to Liverpool’s previous defenders. Ronald Koeman, now the coach of the Netherlands national team, immediately handed him the captain’s armband.

Georginio Wijnaldum, another Dutch international at Liverpool, said, “If Virgil is not happy with something, he will say it straight away. On the field, he is always busy, shouting at those around him and in front of him. Having Virgil behind you is very reassuring because he coaches while playing.”

Van Dijk admits he talks a lot, but every game is an opportunity for him to assess himself and his coordination with teammates. He values brains over brawn. Therefore, there was a time when Van Dijk had low opinions of Sergio Ramos because Ramos often found himself in situations where he had to chase the ball too much. He said in Algemeen Dagblad, “Ramos is a great defender, but not the model I pursue. I will try not to fall into situations like his.”

Van Dijk always tries to intercept the ball rather than engage in a footrace with opponents, although when needed, he is second to none. A master decision-maker, Van Dijk is adept at assessing danger and, even when faced with two-on-one situations, he always manages to block the shot while leaving space to run back and mark the remaining player.

“Every week, every passing day, I feel better,” Van Dijk said.

He lives a quiet life, training, coming home to play with his wife and daughter, resting, and giving his all in every game. It’s a cycle. Van Dijk is now far from the dishwasher man he once was, but that simplicity still exists within him. It’s not easy to forget where one comes from. Van Dijk certainly doesn’t, as it always reminds him that with determination, one can go far!