Virgil Van Dijk Picks His Dream Five-A-Side Team - No Lionel Messi Or Cristiano Ronaldo Included

The Netherlands international chose himself, obviously, and Reds teammate Alisson between the sticks. After that though, things start to get interesting.

Van Dijk easily could've named a few others from Jurgen Klopp's side, but decided to spice it up.

Van Dijk has come up against De Bruyne a number of times throughout his career as City and Liverpool battle to be the dominant force in English football.

In attack, the 30-year-old decided to pick Paris Saint-Germain sensation Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid veteran Karim Benzema.

Mbappe sensationally signed a new contract with PSG on Saturday after being linked with a move to Real for what feels like an eternity.

That means there's no place for Mbappe's PSG cohort Messi or Manchester United talisman Ronaldo.

Both players have dominated the GOAT debate for the last decade but their time at the top seems to be drawing to a close.

While there wasn't space for either man in van Dijk's team, he still had to concede Messi is one of the toughest he's ever played against.

The former Southampton man admitted: "I've played against Sergio Aguero who was unbelievable. I've played against [Lionel] Messi... arguably the best player in the history of football, in my opinion. [Kylian] Mbappe is a different type of quick.

"It's a different type of striker we face nowadays. Such as [Erling] Haaland, Darwin [Nunez] who is a bit similar. Quick, direct, strong, it's quite difficult to face those guys."