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Virgil van Dijk has joined an exclusive club as Liverpool’s latest title-winning captain.

After Arne Slot’s side were confirmed as Premier League champions on Sunday, Van Dijk became the 11th man to skipper the Reds to a top-flight championship.

The Dutchman has been colossal throughout this season’s success, playing every minute of the 2024-25 Premier League campaign to date – a remarkable feat he also achieved throughout Liverpool’s previous title victory in 2019-20.

It is the eighth major honour Van Dijk has secured overall since joining the club in January 2018 and will be the second he personally lifts on the club’s behalf.

When Slot’s men are presented with the Premier League trophy at Anfield on May 25, the No.4 will have the privilege of being the first Liverpool captain to collect the league title in front of supporters for 35 years.

“We are truly deserved champions,” he said on Sunday. “[It’s] the most beautiful club in the world and I think [they] deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”

Here, we take a look at the predecessors Van Dijk has followed into the history books…

Jordan Henderson (2019-20)

Jürgen Klopp’s all-conquering Liverpool team peaked over a two-season period that saw them win the Champions League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and Premier League.

Jordan Henderson lifted all of those trophies as captain and was a relentless driving force during a 2019-20 campaign that saw the Reds amass a club-record total of 99 points while ending a 30-year wait for domestic supremacy.

One of the club’s all-time greats, Alan Hansen captained Liverpool to three league titles.

The first of those arrived in 1985-86, his maiden season as skipper having been appointed to the role by his teammate, manager and great friend Kenny Dalglish. Hansen played in 41 of the Reds’ 42 First Division matches as they won the league and FA Cup double.

Two years later, Hansen appeared 39 times as Dalglish’s 1987-88 vintage – regarded by many as Liverpool’s finest ever team – reclaimed the title from Everton.

And the Scot, by now 34 years of age, captained the club to the 1989-90 championship – the eighth and final title of his glittering Anfield career.

Graeme Souness was a force of nature: a complete midfielder who captained Liverpool to three consecutive First Division titles.

Having been promoted to the position of skipper while the Reds languished in mid-table halfway through the 1981-82 season, Souness led Bob Paisley’s side to an unlikely championship at the first time of asking.

He missed just one game as Liverpool retained the title 12 months later and then, in his final campaign with the club, the Scot was integral as the Reds won a treble of league, European Cup and League Cup.

A Scouser and boyhood Reds fan, Phil Thompson lived the dream of all Liverpudlians by captaining the club he loves to a league championship and European Cup.

Centre-back Thompson was skipper during the 1979-80 season and was an ever-present as the Reds were crowned English champions for the fourth time in five campaigns.

A year later, he led the club to continental glory as Real Madrid were beaten in the European Cup final in Paris.

Emlyn Hughes was Liverpool captain for three First Division triumphs in the 1970s.

A firm fan favourite and near ever-present for more than a decade, Hughes made 665 appearances for the Reds during a trophy-laden 12-year Anfield career.

Across the back-to-back title-winning seasons of 1975-76 and 1976-77 – which also ended with UEFA Cup and European Cup triumphs respectively – the skipper missed just one league game.

By 1978-79, Hughes was no longer an automatic first-choice pick but he was still club captain as Liverpool won the title while conceding only 16 goals in 42 fixtures.

Known affectionately as the ‘Anfield Iron’, Scouser Tommy Smith straddled the eras of Bill Shankly and Paisley and captained his boyhood club to the league title in 1972-73.

An uncompromising defender – hence the nickname – Smith spent 15 years as a first-team player for the Reds and lifted nine major trophies. He played in the historic 1965 FA Cup-winning side and scored in the 1977 European Cup final too.

Shankly appointed him captain in 1970 and three years later he skippered Liverpool to the championship.

Anfield’s original ‘colossus’, Ron Yeats was a cornerstone of Shankly’s team who was captain for two championship wins.

Yeats skippered Liverpool on more than 400 occasions – only Steven Gerrard has done so more often – and was a key member of the side that lifted the 1963-64 title.

Then, after the small matter of captaining the club to its first FA Cup triumph in 1965, the mountainous centre-back was an ever-present as the Reds reclaimed the title in 1965-66.

Willie Fagan was club captain as Liverpool won the league in 1946-47 – the first season to include a full programme following the Second World War.

Fagan had been a key player before football was halted in 1939 and then played 18 times as the Reds lifted their fifth title.

Donald MacKinlay played for Liverpool for nearly two decades and captained the club to back-to-back championships in 1921-22 and 1922-23.

The Scot was appointed skipper in January 1922 and held the honour for seven years before leaving at the age of 37.

Full-back MacKinlay played 29 times in the league in the 1921-22 campaign and was then an ever-present as a Liverpool side nicknamed ‘The Untouchables’ retained their crown the following season.

Alex Raisbeck holds the distinction of being Liverpool’s first league-winning captain – and the Scot was twice a top-flight champion, in 1900-01 and 1905-06.

Raisbeck also skippered the club to the 1904-05 Second Division crown.

Published 32 minutes ago

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