Who is the best striker? Virgil Van Dijk's surprising answer

Throughout his professional career, Virgil van Dijk has come up against some very special historical centre-forwards such as Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema or Luis Suárez. However, in his first encounter, no one surprised him as much as Erling Haaland.

Perhaps because he knew the other attacking stars from long ago because he marked them when they were already established stars, but the captain of the Netherlands national team admitted that he was very impressed with the physical strength and speed he found in the Norwegian Android when he had him as a rival since he was at Salzburg.

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"(Erling) Haaland is a special centre-forward because he is very strong and fast. He has all the attributes to make life difficult for defenders. The first time (I met him) was when he came to Anfield and scored. He was at Salzburg, he came and scored. He is a very difficult opponent. He's very quick, aggressive and direct," said the former Southampton man in a conversation (2021) with Sky Sports official media.

The admiration between Virgil and Haaland is mutual, eh. Just as the Dutch centre-half has named Haaland as the player who surprised him the most when he first came up against him, the Norwegian android has identified the former Celtic man as the toughest defender he has had as a direct opponent at the highest level of the elite. Absolute respect among giants.

Virgil praised Haaland

Erling Haaland (2020/21) and Karim Benzema (2021/22) are the latest players to top the scoring charts in the UEFA Champions League. They broke Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's stranglehold on the world's top club competition.  In the 2020/21 season, Erling Haaland was voted MVP of the season in the German Bundesliga by the fans. He beat Robert Lewandowski in the voting for this individual distinction.