Van Dijk says this Manchester City player is the hardest player he has ever marked

Virgil van Dijk has hailed Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero as the hardest player he has ever had to mark, although he has named Lionel Messi as his toughest ever opponent.



The Liverpool centre-back was chatting to fans on a Twitter Q&A on Tuesday night and was asked about the trickiest players he has ever had to face.

First up, the Dutchman was asked who is toughest opponent has been so far in his career, to which he replied: ‘There are some difficult strikers out there but probably Leo Messi.’


However, Van Dijk separates toughest opponent from hardest to mark, because when asked who he has found it most difficult to mark, his one word answer was: ‘Aguero’.






Van Dijk has actually managed to keep Aguero pretty quiet in his contests against him in a Liverpool shirt.

The Argentinian has only scored one goal against the Reds with Van Dijk in opposition, in the crucial 2-1 win for Pep Guardiola’s side in January last year.

Messi has only lined up against Van Dijk in a Liverpool shirt twice compared to Aguero’s five times but the Barcelona man has struck twice against him, grabbing a brace in the 3-0 win at the Nou Camp in the Champions League last season.

However, the little magician could not work his magic in the return leg as Liverpool conjured up a miraculous 4-0 victory to dump Barca out of the competition.

Van Dijk lost out to Messi in the Ballon d’Or in 2019, finishing second behind the Argentinian legend.