Virgil Van Dijk currently wears the Nike Tiempo Legend, a leather boot favoured by other defensive players like Ronald Araujo, Alisson, William Saliba and Thibaut Courtois. The Tiempo has gone through several generations, transforming from being a K-leather boot to now being a synthetic leather one. Its physical build has also dramatically changed over time, becoming less and less bulky to at least be on par with modern lightweight boots.
| Model | Quality | Pitches | |
|---|---|---|---|
 Tiempo Legend Elite |  FlyTouch Plus upper |  |  >> Get Elite Tiempo Legend 10 at Nike |
 Tiempo Legend Emerald | Emerald green colourway and quilted design to celebrate the silo’s 30th anniversary | |  >> Get Elite Tiempo Legend 10 at Nike |
 Tiempo Legend Pro |  FlyTouch Pro upper |  |  >> Get Tiempo Legend 10 Pro at Nike |
 Tiempo Legend Academy |  FlyTouch Lite upper |  |  >> Get Tiempo Legend 10 Academy at Nike |
 Tiempo Legend Club |  Textured Synthetic materials |  |  >> Get Tiempo Legend 10 Club at Nike |
Mad Ambition Tiempo Legend 10
Liverpool’s bulwark had an interesting home kit-boot dynamic during the opening phase of 2024/25. In a play of primary colours, his primary strip proudly represented the club’s traditional red colour, while his favoured Tiempo Legend 10 shone the royal blue glory of the silo in the Mad Ambition pack. The boot did have a significant presence of white accent, courtesy of the Swoosh and the soleplate.
Mad Brilliance Tiempo
Representing the heart of Netherland’s defence, Van Dijk played in Euro 2024 and wore the Mad Brilliance Tiempo. The Flythouch Plus-based boot was pink all-over, except for the logos and brandings that went for black. As such, if you saw a towering defender with pink boots under his Oranje kit, that was Van Dijk for sure.
Tiempo Legend Emerald
With Emerald, Van Dijk got a Tiempo that celebrated its 30th year of existence. It showcased an emerald green colourway and a quilted texture all over the upper. Emerald Tiempo was also released in Pro and Academy levels, in addition to other soleplate types.
Tiempo Legend 10 Peak Ready
The Dutch defender decided to partner up his red kit with Liverpool with the bright hyper turquoise boots from the UCL-inspired Peak Ready. The thematic colour covered the Flytouch Plus upper, with black and white colouring the Swoosh and the soleplate, respectively. Another highlight design was the speckled look on both the outsole and the Nike symbol. The violet specks on the latter were complemented by the violet Swoosh outline.
Golden Touch Tiempo Legend 10
As one of the established names to wear the Tiempo brand, Virgil Van Dijk got the chance to wear the special edition Golden Touch release of the Tiempo Legend 10. As the name implied, the boot was predominantly golden, matte in finish for the upper adorned with chrome-like Swooshes.
Tiempo Made in Italy
This particular Tiempo release paid tribute to the Nike’s popular factory in Montebelluna, and its colourway is somehow influenced by Andre Pirlo’s 2006 white with blue Air Tiempo Legend. It was released way earlier than when Van Dijk wore this boots midway through the 2022/23 season, possibly as a holding boot while Nike works on releasing newer colourways for the regular Tiempo post-Generation World Cup.
Space Purple Tiempo Legend 9
Van Dijk played at the heart of the Netherland’s defence during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, wearing the Tiempo Legend 9 from the Nike Generation Pack. The boot’s deep shade of purple on the upper and the chrome finish on the outsole produced a very classy colourway, apt for a world-class player like the 6’5″ centre-back. We think it could have been much better and cleaner for the outsole to maintain that golden-copper gloss all through out and just deal away with the peach cream on the rear. But the dotted texturing in Pink Blast on the foam inserts, as well as the white Swoosh with copper outline were all fantastic details.
What does VVD Wear?
Van Dijk has become more of a feature player for Nike, from his performances on pitch and he was the first to be seen wearing the Dazzle Camo Tiempo in training pre-launch of the Tiempo 8.
It seems often Virgil gets custom versions of the boots, unavailable to the public with slight modifications to suit his preferences like, he wore a modified Tiempo Legend VII from the Game Over pack complete with the personalisations of his wife’s and daughters’ name Rike, Nila, and Jadi, the Suriname flag, his children’s birth dates, and the Dutch flag. As a key player for Nike going into the future, expect Nike to be creating a signature edition Tiempo for Van Dijk at some point in the future.
Van Dijk had stints with Eredivisie sides Willem II and Groningen and Premier league club Southampton, but he found successes in Celtic as they bag the Scottish Premiership in 2013-2014 season and the domestic double in the following year and currently in Liverpool with their 2019 UCL and FIFA Club World Cup titles. The Balon d’Or last December 2019 was a close one, as he was in the running to be the first defender since Cannavaro in 2006 to win the award but eventually was narrowly edged out by Lionel Messi. Consistently providing a rock-solid anchor in defence and giving more freedom for Liverpool to attack
His defensive prowess comes from a lot of sources; VVD is physically imposing with his 6’5” and wide body frame. His speed is above average for a central defender and has wide strides to cover a lot of ground in a short time. He has a good read of the game and composure to cope up even with the paciest of football players. No less than Lionel Messi himself said that VVD is hard to get past because of the defender’s impeccable timing along with the defender’s athletic attributes. And while his defence is the main priority of the opposition to break, he puts in his stamp in the attack by being a threat in the air from set-pieces.
