Virgil van Dijk vs Piers Morgan on Twitter after Cristiano Ronaldo comment was gold

Virgil van Dijk is undoubtedly one of the greatest defenders of the modern era.

Since joining Liverpool, the Dutchman has transformed their defence and his colossal performances were key to them winning the Champions League in 2019.

Van Dijk was voted Man of the Match in the final victory over Tottenham Hotspur and many believed he would go on to be the first defender to win the Ballon d’Or since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006.

But the Liverpool man was pipped to football’s most prestigious individual accolade by Lionel Messi, which was the Argentine’s sixth triumph.

Van Dijk took his narrow defeat well, though. “He’s fantastic, six times the Ballon d’Or [winner],” the Dutchman said about Messi.

However, Van Dijk still found himself at the centre of some rather negative headlines after the 2019 Ballon d’Or ceremony when Piers Morgan took one of his comments about Cristiano Ronaldo out of context.

The Portuguese superstar was absent from proceedings, which led to one reporter saying to the Liverpool man: “Cristiano Ronaldo won’t be here tonight, so that’s already one less rival to care about.”

As part of his reply to that claim, Van Dijk said: “Was Cristiano Ronaldo really a rival?”

That six-word comment quickly went viral on social media, despite the fact Van Dijk also praised Ronaldo to rafters in the interview.

And Morgan, who is a known supporter of the Manchester United forward, took the bait.

In response to a tweet including the quote, Morgan wrote: “No.. @Cristiano is a far greater player, you’re not in his league.”

Soon after that post went live, Van Dijk stepped in and put poor ol’ Piers in his place.

Hi Piers, If you don’t jump on the social media bandwagon and would listen to the whole interview then you would know I