VIRGIL van Dijk became a Celtic player yesterday and, for what it's worth, the most expensive signing in Scottish football so far this year.
The £2.5m paid to Groningen exceeded the £2m fee spent on Amido Balde last week. Given that Celtic are the only club paying sizeable transfer fees in Scotland these days, their highest fee of the year is inevitably also the country's.
Van Dijk is a tall, powerfully-built young centre-back who has agreed a four-year contract. He was born in the Dutch town of Breda in 1991 – he will turn 22 next month – and Celtic will hope that he comes remotely close to being as successful for them as the last player they took from there. Pierre van Hooijdonk was not actually born in Breda but began his career at the town and now lives near there again. Whatever similarities they may have do not extend to their personalities. Van Hooijdonk was effervescent; yesterday Van Dijk was quiet, polite and reserved. Quite unDutch, in fact.
It had tickled him to see that Van Hooijdonk had tweeted wishing him luck at Celtic. "He was a hero as a player here and maybe I will go and talk to him," he said. "I don't know him but I saw yesterday that he posted something on Twitter saying nice things about me and saying he was glad to hear I had signed for Celtic. I'm going to talk to him.
"It's a big step for me to move to Glasgow at the age of 21 but I think I'm ready for it. Me and my girlfriend will come here and we'll see. It's different from playing for Groningen but I am prepared for it."
Van Dijk began his career with an amateur club in Breda and joined Willem II's youth system at the age of eight, staying for a decade until he moved to FC Groningen in 2011. "It's a big step to Celtic. But I always loved to play with the ball when I was small, and since I was a little boy it has been my dream to be a professional footballer.
"Ronaldinho was always my hero when I was growing up. He was a striker, of course, but when we played on the streets I was always Ronaldinho. He was my hero. He was always laughing, smiling, he was a great footballer. It's my feeling that Celtic are a warm club with great fans. It's the biggest club in Scotland and my feeling about coming here has always been warm."
Van Dijk has been capped three times at under-21 level, and played in a 2-1 defeat by a Scotland team including new club-mate James Forrest in 2011. Would moving to Celtic improve his chances of being selected for the full Dutch team? "I don't know but first of all I want to settle here and see what happens. I'm excited about the Champions League draw. It will be great to see which opponent we get. Hopefully something great can happen again."
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