Virgil Van Dijk ‘dreams’ of winning Ballon d'Or but would rather win trophies with Liverpool

The Ballon d'Or is regarded as the highest individual honour a player can win

Virgil van Dijk says winning the Ballon d’Or would be a dream come true, but insists his focus is always on winning silverware with Liverpool.

The Liverpool central defender is expected to challenge the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the converted award that is regarded by many as being the highest individual honour a player can win.

In his first full season at Liverpool, Van Dijk was influential in their Champions League winning campaign and their run to finishing second in the Premier League.

In 2006 Fabio Cannavaro became the last central defender to win to the prize, which is voted for by international managers, captains and a journalist from each country.

“If you win something like that it’s the dream of every footballer in the world. If you don’t then you get on with it and performance even better than I did last year,” Van Dijk told Sky Sports.

“If it happens it’s it will be fantastic and I will be very proud nothing has been decided so it’s not influencing anything.”

“It is a subject we don’t have influence on we can’t change things other than get fit and stay fit,” he added.

While Van Dijk appreciates the individual credit, he was quick to heap praise on his teammates and said that winning trophies with Liverpool is always his priority.

Virgil van Dijk insists he will always put the team first (Getty)

“I’m playing for a fantastic team we all enjoy working hard and if we get recognition then fantastic,” he said.

“The main thing will be to focus on what we do altogether and achieve the bigger goal and that is getting silverware with the club.

Liverpool were crowned European champions and finished on 97 points as they narrowly missed out on their first Premier League title.

“If you look at our team last year you could pick the whole team to put in a team of the year,” said Van Dijk. “If you look at Alisson it’s been an amazing year, his first year.”