Liverpool agree world-record £75m fee with Southampton for Virgil van Dijk

Virgil van Dijk is poised to join Liverpool for £75m having come close to joining the club from Southampton last summer. Photograph: Virgil Van Dijk/PA

Liverpool will sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton next week after agreeing a fee of £75m for the Holland international – a world record for a defender. The Merseyside club had wanted him to join last summer and indicated a willingness to pay £60m only for the move to break down in acrimonious fashion.

Southampton felt compelled to make a stand over their star player as they began life under a new manager, Mauricio Pellegrino, and they hoped that Van Dijk would apply himself and recapture the form he had shown at St Mary’s since his £11.5m switch from Celtic in 2015 – if only for another season.

It has not worked out that way, however. Van Dijk has appeared to have done no more than go through the motions and Pellegrino has come to accept that his departure is inevitable. He has not played the defender in Southampton’s past three matches.

Negotiations between the two clubs accelerated over the festive period before Van Dijk underwent a medical on Wednesday after successfully agreeing personal terms on a contract until 2023 worth in the region of £180,000-a-week.

“Liverpool football club can confirm they have reached an agreement with Southampton for the transfer of Virgil van Dijk,” read an official statement. “The Reds have agreed a deal with the south coast club, and the player himself, that will see the 26-year-old defender move to Anfield when the transfer window re-opens on 1 January 2018.”