Virgil van Dijk put Piers Morgan in his place in 2019 when the TV host said told the Liverpool star "you're not in his league" on Twitter.

It came after the 2019 Ballon d'Or award ceremony, where Van Dijk finished second to Lionel Messi.

If ever a defender was going to follow Fabio Cannavaro's achievement in 2006 and win the coveted prize, it was Van Dijk in 2019.

He was exceptional, transforming Liverpool's defence into one good enough to win the Champions League.

But it wasn't to be. Messi came away with the prize - the sixth in his career - and Van Dijk was left to wonder what more he could have done.

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Van Dijk vs Morgan

The Dutchman took it well, though.

"He's fantastic, six times the Ballon d’Or [winner],” Van Dijk said.

However, Van Dijk found himself in the headlines when one of his comments was taken out of context by Morgan.

Ronaldo was absent from the ceremony and a reporter asked him about that, saying: "Cristiano Ronaldo won't be here tonight, so that's already one less rival to care about."

As part of his full response, Van Dijk said: "Was Cristiano Ronaldo really a rival?"

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Of course, the comment on its own was always going to attract attention and many people ran with it.

And Morgan fell for it, quote-tweeting a tweet about Van Dijk's message and writing: "No.. @Cristiano is a far greater player, you’re not in his league."

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Van Dijk shut Morgan down

And this is where the outspoken Morgan messed up.

Van Dijk actually heaped praise on Ronaldo during the interview, and he let Morgan know.

"Hi Piers,” Van Dijk wrote in response. “If you don’t jump on the social media bandwagon and would listen to the whole interview then you would know I made a joke, and only got respect for those 2."

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Despite finishing ahead of Ronaldo in the vote, in his interview Van Dijk referred to the Portuguese star as one of two players - the other being Messi, of course - who are "a bit unnatural".

"It was an amazing year, but there's a couple of players like that who are a bit unnatural. So you need to respect greatness as well," he added.

"I was close, but there was just someone a little bit better.

"I'm very proud of what I achieved last year with Liverpool and Holland, and hopefully we can do that again this year. But that will be tough with those guys around here still."

Game over, Piers.

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