Agent Aleksei Lundovsky has revealed Liverpool's new £75m man Virgil van Dijk could've joined Metalist Kharkiv.

The Ukrainians moved to sign the departing Southampton defender when he was with FC Groningen.

Lundovsky told Sport Arena: "Van Dijk could have ended up in Ukraine in 2013. I remember exactly how it went.

"I went to Groningen with sports director Evgeni Krasnikov and we met Van Dijk and his agent in the VIP lounge. We negotiated and Van Dijk had no objection to a transfer to Metalist.

"He came across as a modest boy.

"At that time, little was known about the Ukrainian competition in the Netherlands. I think that if Jeremain Lens or another 'Surinamese friend' had played in our country back then, Van Dijk might have come too."