Virgil van Dijk said he will consider his Liverpool and Dutch future following the Netherlands’ dramatic 2-1 defeat to England in the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
The 33-year-old saw his hopes of reaching a first major international final thwarted in the dying moments when Ollie Watkins’ superb effort claimed a last-ditch winner for England in Dortmund.
Van Dijk, capped on 75 occasions for his country, is also entering the final year of his Liverpool contract, with the club set for a major transition following the departure of Jurgen Klopp.
And the defender was unwilling to make any grand commitments to his current club or country in the wake of Wednesday’s defeat.
‘I haven’t the slightest idea right now,’ Van Dijk said when asked by reporters about his future.
‘I will think carefully this summer about what I want at club level and as an international player. Then we’ll go for it again, but first recover from this.
‘After a season like this, where all kinds of things have happened, it gets emotional at the end because you know it’s over.
On the semi-final more generally, he said: ‘Especially in the second half I had the feeling the outcome would fall our way.
‘But [Ollie] Watkins was perhaps given a little too much space and he finished well.’
‘It hurts a lot that we conceded this goal so late in the match and are now empty-handed. You put everything into it, everyone gives everything and if the goal comes like that in the last minute, that just sucks. Yes … sorry.’
Van Dijk did, however, express huge frustrations at the performance of referee Felix Zwayer after the controversial penalty awarded to England in the first half.
‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t know if I should say something about this,’ he told beIN Sports.
‘But I think it says it all that the referee went in quite quickly after the game, had no time to shake his hand.’