Former Liverpool striker, Michael Owen has sensationally claimed that defender, Virgil van Dijk is already the greatest centre-back of all time despite only having one Premier League title to his name.

Van Dijk has earned a lot of plaudits since joining Liverpool from Southampton in a £75million deal in January 2018.

The Dutchman has quickly returned to his dominant best this season after missing much of the 2020-21 campaign with an ACL injury.

BT Sport’s pundits were discussing Van Dijk before Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final second-leg 3-2 victory against Villarreal on Tuesday night, with Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand saying the Netherlands international is the “best centre-back on earth right now, easy”.

However, Owen then weighed in, saying: “Well, I would go further. I think he is the best centre-half of all time.”

Asked what makes Van Dijk better than Ferdinand and others, Owen continued: “He probably scored a few more goals, not much, but we are talking about the greatest here.

“As I have said, Rio was the best centre-half I ever played with. But with Van Dijk, as a centre-forward I look at him and think: what do you do against him?

“He is bigger than everyone, he is faster than everyone, he is stronger than everyone, he is brilliant on the ball, he scores goals. I have never seen anything like it.

The only thing that goes against Van Dijk at the moment – and I stress, at the moment – is his winners’ medals. He has only won one Premier League and one Champions League.

“People like Rio and [Paolo] Maldini and [Franco] Baresi and people like that who you might consider the greatest, they have all got numerous. So that’s the only thing that goes against him.

“But as a one-off, I look at him and think: how can you get any better than that?”