Virgil van Dijk to Wear Number Four at Liverpool

Liverpool have today announced the signing of Virgil van Dijk in a £70M deal rising to £75M with add-ons, and the player will officially join the club when the transfer window opens on January 1st. When it does, and when he first steps onto the pitch as a Liverpool player, he will be wearing the number four.

The club announced his selection of a number previously worn at Liverpool by Kolo Toure, Nuri Sahin, Raul Meireles, Alberto Aquilani, and—most noteworthy in the Premier League era—Sami Hyypia shortly after news of his signing broke, though the club has yet to make Van Dijk’s shirt available for sale.

Van Dijk wore the number 17 while at Southampton but regularly wears four for the Netherlands and earlier in his career wore five at Celtic. At the club level, he last wore four for FC Groningen, who he played three senior seasons for after joining the club as a youth player on a free transfer in 2010.

With a medical already completed and the transfer deal and contract in place, Van Dijk could make his first appearance against Burnley on New Year’s Day. Alternately, Jürgen Klopp could decide to give the player time to bed in—and he could make his first Liverpool appearance against Everton in the FA Cup on fifth.