Football legend Alessandro Nesta has named Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk as the best defender in the world.
Van Dijk has been at the heart of Liverpool’s success since joining the Reds from Southampton in 2017 for £75million.
At 34, he remains integral to Arne Slot’s plans on Merseyside having signed a new contract at Anfield in April.
The Premier League is not short of outstanding options at centre-half with William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes a colossal pairing at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.
Marc Guehi has emerged as another world class operator for club and country and will have no shortage of huge offers across Europe when he leaves Crystal Palace at the end of the season.
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For so long, Italy was home to the best defenders on the planet with Nesta at the very top of the pile for so many years.
The former Italy international maintained his remarkable levels of consistency for so many years and has been impressed with how van Dijk has done likewise, hailing him as still the best the game has to offer at the back.
‘For me, now van Dijk is the best,’ Nesta said. ‘The best, because he performs every year at the same level. He plays in the Premier League, the biggest league in the world, for me, and toughest so for me he is the best.’
For a number of years, Italian clubs have struggled to compete with the financial might of the Premier League with no Serie A side winning the Champions League since Inter’s triumph in 2010.
Nesta points to the radically different landscape of football ownership in Italy as one of the defining factors in that change.
‘In Italy, the league is changing. Before 10 years ago, there was the richest families controlling clubs in Italy, he said.
‘They spent a lot of money to improve the teams and to buy the best players in the world. In this moment, we have proposals from the USA, they come to Italy just to have for business. It is different.
‘Different and years ago when Serie A was the best league in the world. for me, we did not build something stronger.
‘Now without the big money, from the Italian families, the Premier League is killing us.’