Virgil Van Dijk will be named PFA Players’ Player of the Year on Thursday after beating Raheem Sterling to the award.

The Liverpool centre-half, who has played a key role in the Reds’ title challenge, has beaten Manchester City’s England star to the prize, after impressing his peers during an immaculate campaign.

The £75million defender was on a six-man shortlist including Sterling, his Anfield teammate Sadio Mane, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and two more City players, Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva.

Van Dijk has played a huge part in shoring up the Reds’ defence in his first full season at Anfield.

The Holland international has proven himself a centre-back maintain, with the likes of Joe Gomes and Joel Matip rotating to line up alongside him.

Liverpool have lost just one game this season with the Dutchman at the back, and have conceded the least amount of goals in the league – 20.

Van Dijk revealed earlier in the week that he had voted for his closest competition to win the award, Citizens’ forward Sterling.

Sterling however didn’t return the favour and instead voted for his England international team-mate Harry Kane.

The Manchester City forward said: “It’s nice to be recognised on that front but, to be honest, if we don’t win the Premier League, I don’t really want to be in contention.

“What I want to do is win the Premier League, win the FA Cup, then think about stuff like that, even though the awards are before that. Without that, it doesn’t mean much to me, really.

“I voted for Harry Kane. My vote for him is because he scores so many goals every year, he does so much for the team, gives so much for his team.


“There was a lot of talk about Virgil van Dijk. I knew he would have a lot of the votes, so I looked at someone I thought being around him in the national team, how he puts in his work, his work ethic, how he looks after himself.

“He’s always there, especially coming back from injury, as a professional I looked at him and that’s my reason for voting for him, seeing him on a day-to-day with the national team.”