When Liverpool spent £75 million on Virgil van Dijk, a lot of football fans believed they had massively overpaid.

Jurgen Klopp failed in his attempts to sign the Dutchman in the summer of 2017 and had to wait six months before Southampton allowed him to leave.

It was a world-record transfer fee for a defender.

But it’s proved to be money very well spent.

Van Dijk has played a crucial role as Liverpool challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title. They’re also looking to go one better than last season when they reached the Champions League final, losing to Real Madrid.

However, there is one man - and perhaps only one man - that doesn’t consider Van Dijk as one of the best centre-backs in world football.

That man actually used to be a pretty good defender himself - Marco Materazzi.

Instead, the legendary Italian has named Sergio Ramos, Kalidou Koulibaly and Alessio Romagnoli.

"I think that right now, among the strongest centers are: Koulibaly, Sergio Ramos and Romagnoli,” Materazzi told Suning PPSports TV.

No Van Dijk?

Interestingly, earlier this week, Ryan Babel insisted that Van Dijk has a mystery weakness ahead of Fulham’s clash with Liverpool.

“He does have a weakness, I don’t want to say what it is. I don’t think in the Premier League anyone has made that aware yet,” Babel said.

Perhaps Materazzi is also aware of Van Dijk’s weakness and that’s why he doesn’t think he’s one of the best centre-backs in the world.

Or perhaps Materazzi simply doesn’t watch Premier League football.