Virgil van Dijk: Liverpool star shuts down Piers Morgan to explain Cristiano Ronaldo joke at Ballon d’Or ceremony

The Dutch defender finished second in the voting for the prestigious award

Virgil van Dijk swiftly shut down Piers Morgan after his joke about Cristiano Ronaldo at the Ballon d’Or ceremony was misinterpreted.

The Liverpool defender finished second in the voting behind Lionel Messi, who picked up the award for the sixth time in Paris.

And Morgan, who is often seen calling out ‘fake news’ fell for a quote posted by Sports Bible without the proper context added.

The initial post quoted a question from a reporter to Van Dijk: ”Cristiano Ronaldo won’t be here tonight, so that’s already one less rival to care about.”

Followed by Virgil van Dijk’s joke in response: “Was Cristiano Ronaldo really a rival?”

Which led to Morgan taking a swipe at Van Dijk in defence of Ronaldo, who he has grown close to after interviewing the Juventus star earlier this year: “No, Cristiano is a far greater player, you’re not in his league.”

Van Dijk took the criticism in good heart though, instead advising Morgan to not believe everything he reads on social media without context.

The Dutch centre-back wrote: “Hi Piers, 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 two.”

It led to Morgan surprisingly backtracking and admitting his mistake: “Good tackle, Virgil.. as I would expect.”