Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was on the receiving end of a prank during his time at Southampton, former teammate Shane Long has revealed
Former Southampton striker Shane Long has revealed he left Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk fuming with a training ground prank. The pair played together at St Mary’s before the Dutchman’s then-world-record transfer to Anfield.
Both the defender and the Saints icon played together 61 times during the 33-year-old’s time in Hampshire. Since arriving on Merseyside, he has gone head-to-head with the Republic of Ireland striker, winning each of the four encounters, conceding just once as Long was on the receiving end of 12 goals conceded.
The 37-year-old has faced off with his former teammate on international duty, finding the back of the net in a 1-1 draw in 2016 at the Aviva Stadium. In a podcast with Ben Foster, Long has revealed how he capitalised on getting the better of Van Dijk and how his prank left the Reds captain fuming.
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“I played against him for Liverpool and for Holland as well, it was tough because I’d always try go to the other centre-back.” he said. “You have to (pick the weaker one) but at Liverpool and Holland, there’s not many weak centre-backs.
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“He had everything, he was strong as an ox, good in air, there was no real weak point in his game. We did play against him at the Aviva in Dublin, he was marking John O’Shea or someone from the corner, the ball broke to me and I scored, tapped it in from a yard.
“As I’m running away, there’s a picture of Virgil on the ground behind me and I’m running away celebrating. I got it framed, put it in his place and when he came back he was raging.
“(It was) Just a little joke to say, ‘Virg, you can’t mark me’ no one knew he wasn’t marking me and it was nothing to do with him but I knew I wouldn’t get many more. He took it well, at the start he tried to defend himself but he seen the funny side of it.”
