Virgil van Dijk accused of 'ruining Dutch football' and told he's 'finished' after World Cup

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Virgil van Dijk's dreams of winning a World Cup may be over as he will be 39 by the time the 2030 final takes place, and his international future looks unclearVirgil van Dijk's international future looks unclear after the Netherlands' World Cup exit(Image: ANP)Virgil van Dijk has come in for some heavy criticism from one particularly angry member of the Dutch press after the Netherlands' World Cup loss exit at the hands of Morocco.Morocco reached the semi-finals of the Qatar World Cup three and a half years ago and will face Canada in the last 16 of this edition of the tournament after knocking out the 2010 finalist.Liverpool and Netherlands skipper Van Dijk was slammed in an article by De Telegraaf journalist Valentijn Driessen, who described Van Dijk as "finished" and said that he "betrayed everything our national team stands for".Driessen then suggested that the Netherlands had to change its entire approach to the game just to cover up for Van Dijk's deficiencies.The Netherlands looked to be heading to the last 16 after Cody Gakpo scored in the 72nd minute, but Morocco equalized in the first minute of stoppage time – a goal which Driessen also blamed Van Dijk's positioning for.Aged 34 and set to turn 35 next week, it is unclear what the future holds for Van Dijk's international future.Speaking after the game, Van Dijk said: "[It's] very difficult to analyze it now. I think we were well organized defensively."They basically couldn't find the open man between the lines.

Then it goes to penalties; unfortunately, we get knocked out."If you look at almost all the big teams at the World Cup: they also just drop back and they also wait for the right moment to apply pressure.Van Dijk looks dejected after the shoot-out loss(Image: 2026 FIFA)"We trained hard on this for two days; at times it went well. Of course, there are always things that can be improved, but anyway, that doesn't help us right now."Van Dijk faced criticism from some for not stepping up to take a penalty during the shootout.Morocco blinked first when it went to penalties, as Neil El Aynaoui missed his side's first spot-kick of the shootout, but Justin Kluivert, Quinten Timber and Crysencio Summerville all missed for the Netherlands.Koeman confirmed that Van Dijk would have been due to take one had it not been for a calf issue that the Liverpool captain was dealing with."Van Dijk had already indicated during the match, in extra time, that his calf was bothering him badly," Koeman explained."Summerville had a cramp.

So ultimately, it came down to who would take the fifth penalty, because at that point we didn't know yet whether Summerville would drop out or be able to take a penalty."Wout Weghorst was fourth on the list; due to this situation, he became the third taker. If Summerville hadn't said he was going to take the penalty, Virgil would have taken it."