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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk named UEFA Defender of the Year

Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk has picked up the award for UEFA's Defender of the Year.

The centre-back saw off competition from Reds teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold and his fellow Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt to win the trophy in Monaco.

Van Dijk addressed Liverpool's hopes of wining the Champions League trophy again after lifting the award.

"We want to compete and try to defend the cup," he said.

"It's going to be tough because there are so many great teams, but we're going to go for it, fight for it and we'll see what will happen."

The Dutchman in Monaco with his teammate Alisson (AFP/Getty Images)

Van Dijk, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are all up for UEFA's Men's Player of the Year award to be decided later in the evening, after all of the positional awards have been decided during the Champions League draw.

The three-man shortlist was decided following votes from a jury of 80 coaches of the clubs that began the Champions League (32) and Europa League (48) group stages last season, as well as one journalist from each of the 55 UEFA member associations.

UEFA had already announced that Alisson, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah had taken their places in the top 10 - coming in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Van Dijk arriving at the awards (UEFA via Getty Images)

Mane and Salah shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the Senegalese scoring a brace against Bayern Munich in the second round of the Champions League and Salah netting the opener against Tottenham in Madrid from the spot.

The remainder of the top 10, in order, was made up of Eden Hazard, Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong and Raheem Sterling.

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