A Tottenham defender has made the cut, but Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was nowhere to be seen in Sol Campbell’s top three Premier League centre-backs.
Tottenham have been a transformed team under Thomas Frank and currently sit third in the Premier League table heading into the international break.
Spurs owe much of their success to their defence, which has been astute so far this campaign. Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero, Djed Spence, and Pedro Porro have all performed excellently for the North London club.
The Dutchman Van de Ven stands out as the cream of the crop, earning high praise from former Tottenham and Arsenal defender Sol Campbell.
Sol Campbell ranks Micky van de Ven above Virgil van Dijk
In an interview with GIVEMESPORT, Campbell was asked to name the top three centre-backs currently playing in the Premier League.
The 51-year-old started with the Arsenal duo of Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba before naming Van de Ven as his third choice.
He said, “Oh, current? I would say, number one and number two, Saliba is in there, I think Gabriel is two, and number three is Van de Ven.”
The legendary Premier League centre-back notably left out Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, widely regarded as the best centre-back in world football.
Sol Campbell thinks he’s better than Virgil van Dijk – and many more
In another GIVEMESPORT interview, Campbell was asked to signal whenever the interviewer named a centre-back who he thought was better than him. Only one player cut: AC Milan’s Paolo Maldini.
The list of other top centre-backs included:
Regarding Maldini, Campbell said: “There’s only one!” – the Italian legend being just that. Remarkable confidence from Sol, that’s for sure.