'Celtic star was best I ever played with before I went on to win title with Liverpool'

Virgil van Dijk has noted how Stefan Johansen was one of his best-ever team-mates while at Celtic.

The Dutch centre-half made a name for himself with The Bhoys between 2013 and 2015, lifting two Scottish Premierships and a League Cup before making the move to Southampton. And while the now 33-year-old shared the pitch with a wealth of incredible players during his time at Celtic Park, including the likes of Scott Brown, Georgios Samaras, and Jason Denayer, he held a soft spot for centre-mid Johansen in particular.

When answering fan questions during a Twitter Q&A session, Van Dijk was probed on his time at Celtic, with one person asking who the best player he had the privilege of sharing the pitch or Parkhead with. To which, he responded: "I loved my time at Celtic and played with so many top players but a special mention to Stefan Johansen."

Johansen came up through the youth ranks of Bodo/Glimt in 2007 before transferring to Stromsgodset in 2011. He arrived at Celtic in 2014, and spent just two years with the side – racking up 19 goals and 22 assists in 114 games for the Green and White Army, and was named as both Celtic's and the PFA Scotland Player's Player of the Year in the 2014/15 campaign before parting ways with the club to explore other avenues with Fulham in 2016.

Arguably the side which Johansen is best-known with, the Norwegian helped promote Fulham to the Premier League via the Championship playoffs on two occasions, before moving on to Queens Park Rangers in 2021, and exploring the Eliteserien with Sarpsborg 08 in 2024.

At 34, the seasoned veteran has been without a club since the turn of the new year; his career a far cry from the highs in which Van Dijk has enjoyed since parting ways with Celtic in 2015.