Jurgen Klopp Says Virgil van Dijk Should Win Ballon d'Or over Lionel Messi

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has backed Virgil van Dijk to win this year's Ballon d'Or ahead of Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

Klopp is an enormous admirer of Messi, but he felt the centre-back should have the edge for the year he's had:

Per Goal's Josh Thomas, he said:

"If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi. That's how it is.

"But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it.

"The best player of all? That's Lionel. Best player of last season? That's Virgil. We will see."

Van Dijk beat Messi to the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award this summer. He helped Liverpool win the UEFA Champions League and finish the 2018-19 Premier League season on 97 points having shipped just 22 goals, the best defensive record in the division.

In September, Messi was crowned FIFA's The Best Men's Player ahead of Van Dijk. Messi carried Barcelona to their eighth La Liga title in 11 years and to the semi-finals of the Champions League and the final of the Copa del Rey.

Football writer Manuel Veth thought Van Dijk should have won the latter award ahead of Messi, though:

Unlike the UEFA and FIFA awards they've already collected, which were for the 2018-19 season, the Ballon d'Or is a calendar-year award for the whole of 2019.

Ben Hayward of the Evening Standard believes Messi should win it for the sixth time:

The 32-year-old has 44 goals and 16 assists for club and country this year—five and two, respectively, for Argentina and the rest for Barcelona.

Van Dijk has started 14 of Liverpool's 16 games that have resulted in clean sheets in all competitions in 2019, though the Reds haven't been quite as imperious at the back this season as they were last.

Liverpool have only lost once in all competitions this season, but they've also kept just three clean sheets. Van Dijk has featured in two of those, as he did not play in the 2-0 Carabao Cup win over MK Dons.

On the international stage, Messi finished third with Argentina at the Copa America, while Van Dijk's Netherlands lost 1-0 to Portugal in the final of the UEFA Nations League.

Given one is a forward and the other a defender, it can be difficult to judge them against one another.

The Ballon d'Or typically goes to attacking players, though. It hasn't been won by a defender since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, so Messi might have the edge, but Van Dijk has perhaps had the strongest case of any defender since the Italian's triumph.