Virgil van Dijk has enhanced his anniversary international match as record captain with direct qualification for the final rounds of the Football World Cup next summer. The native of Breda wore the captain’s armband for the 72nd time as a player of the Dutch football team on Monday evening in the 4-0 home match against Lithuania.
Van Dijk thus dethroned Frank de Boer, who played as captain 71 times for Ajax and Barcelona.
Van Dijk (34) was in the starting line-up of national coach Ronald Koeman’s team in the Johan Cruijff Arena. One point in the match against Lithuania was enough for the Dutch team to qualify directly for the World Cup finals, next summer in America, Canada and Mexico.
Van Dijk kicked off for the seventieth time as captain. He took over the band as a substitute in two international matches. This happened on September 6, 2018 as a replacement for Wesley Sneijder, at home against Peru, and last summer in the home game against Canada. Then Van Dijk came on for Daley Blind.
Van Dijk, who is also captain of his club Liverpool, started his 88th international match against Lithuania. In October 2015 he made his debut for the Dutch national team, in a European Championship qualifier against Kazakhstan. In the spring of 2018, the former player of WDS ’19 (Breda) received the band around his arm for the first time for a match of the Dutch team.