The 10 greatest centre-backs in football history have been named - Virgil van Dijk 4th

After Liverpool‘s 3-2 win away at Villarreal that booked their place in the Champions League final, Michael Owen labelled Virgil van Dijk as the “best centre half of all time”.

“I think he’s the best centre-half of all time,” Owen boldly said live on BT Sport. “He’s bigger than everyone, he’s faster than everyone, he’s stronger than everyone, he’s brilliant on the ball, he scores goals. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“The only thing that goes against Van Dijk at the moment – and I stress, at the moment – is his winners’ medals. He’s only won one Premier League and one Champions League.”

It’s a huge claim and one that understandably sparked a lot of debate.

Van Dijk is a world-class defender and probably the best in the world right now, but is he really the greatest the sport has ever seen?

Well, the folks over at the Daily Mail have provided their own take on the centre-back GOAT question and the Liverpool man doesn’t take top spot in their ranking.

Let’s run through their 10-man list, which doesn’t include Paolo Maldini due to the fact he spent a large portion of his career at left-back…

Despite standing at just 5’8″, Passarella was a magnificent centre-back. He captained Argentina to World Cup glory on home soil in 1978 and scored over 150 goals throughout the course of his marvellous career.

A player who’s somewhat underrated in the present day. Desailly won back-to-back Champions Leagues with Marseille and AC Milan, was a key part of the France side that triumphed at the 1998 World Cup and also captained a pre-takeover Chelsea side to FA Cup success in 2000.

The greatest goal scoring defender in history. For club and country, Koeman found the back of the net 239 times, a career return which a top-quality striker