Georginio Wijnaldum believes Virgil van Dijk deserves to be ranked amongst the best three players in the world.

Wijnaldum played with his Netherlands teammate at Liverpool before joining PSG this past summer.

And the 30-year-old says van Dijk belongs with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the world's best players.

"Everyone says Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo because they have dominated the game for 15 years, and the third player is always different," he said in an interview with FIFA .

"When you talk about the best players in the world, people automatically say midfielders and attackers, but we also have great defenders.

"Virgil van Dijk is up there. I now play with [Marco] Verratti at PSG and he's phenomenal.

"People won't say him because his role is not to score lots of goals and get lots of assists, but what he does in training and on the pitch is magnificent."