{"id":64400,"date":"2025-04-17T11:58:28","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=64400"},"modified":"2025-04-17T11:58:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:58:28","slug":"van-dijk-stays-red-as-liverpool-captain-signs-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/04\/17\/van-dijk-stays-red-as-liverpool-captain-signs-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Dijk Stays Red as Liverpool Captain Signs New Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has penned a fresh contract that extends his stay at Anfield beyond the 2024\u201325 season, reinforcing his loyalty to the club he calls home.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch defender, who arrived in 2018 and became a defensive rock under J\u00fcrgen Klopp, declared his pride and joy at continuing his journey with the Reds. \u201cIt was always going to be Liverpool,\u201d Van Dijk said in an emotional statement. \u201cThis is home for me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His new deal comes just days after Mohamed Salah also renewed his contract, sending a clear message that Liverpool are focused on continuity and leadership as a new era approaches.<\/p>\n<p>Van Dijk has racked up 314 appearances and 27 goals, anchoring a defense that led the club to Premier League and Champions League glory, among seven major trophies.<\/p>\n<p>Individually, he boasts accolades including the PFA Players\u2019 Player of the Year and multiple Team of the Year honors.<\/p>\n<p>Now 33, Van Dijk remains as influential as ever, wearing the captain\u2019s armband with authority.<\/p>\n<p>With his future sealed, the towering centre back looks set to guide Liverpool through their next chapter in pursuit of more glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has penned a fresh contract that extends his stay at Anfield beyond the 2024\u201325 season, reinforcing his loyalty to the club he calls home. The Dutch defender, who arrived in 2018 and became a defensive rock under J\u00fcrgen Klopp, declared his pride and joy at continuing his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":64401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-64400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64402,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64400\/revisions\/64402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}