Van Dijk joined Willem II’s then-acclaimed academy in 2001 as a 10-year-old.
It was a membership that had defied the percentages only a few years earlier by ending second within the Eredivisie in 1998-99 and reaching the Champions League.
Shortly after his arrival, Jan van Loon was put in as academy director.
“There was really no striker who stood an opportunity in opposition to him,” Van Loon stated. “He was bodily robust and he had a pure expertise to take balls off opponents at precisely the proper second.
“I keep in mind in video games we might generally say to him: ‘Be careful Virgil, there may be an opponent behind you.’ He can be very relaxed, like: ‘Yeah, OK, no worries.’
“I recall a sport in opposition to Ajax, the place he would mark their finest participant. We have been saying ‘ensure he does not contact any ball,’ and that is precisely what Virgil would do.”
But there was nonetheless room for enchancment,
Van Loon, added: “So at times he might come throughout as laconic, a bit too straightforward going. Perhaps at instances some youth managers even considered him as lazy.”
That picture was partly created by his timekeeping, as Van Dijk would generally arrive late for coaching periods.
It even bought to the purpose the place some coaches puzzled whether or not the younger defender ought to stay on the membership.
However when Van Loon took a more in-depth curiosity within the younger footballer, he additionally gained perception into Van Dijk’s private life.
He stated: “His dad and mom have been divorced and at instances he needed to take care of his youthful brother and sister. Generally he needed to take them from college and make them lunch, earlier than leaping on the bus to Willem II.
“That meant he could possibly be late at times, and if I requested him in regards to the causes he would all the time clarify intimately what had occurred.
“One time I keep in mind his little brother had requested him for peanut butter on his bread, one thing he needed to go and get within the grocery store – and subsequently he simply missed the bus. That interval has formed him each as a human and footballer.”
