It's a special achievement to play in the Premier League full stop. But it takes an elite talent to play over 300 times with 56 goals in the best league in the world. This is something that Shane Long can proudly boast about now that he's finished playing at the top level.
The Tipperary man came up against some of the best centre-backs throughout his time, John Terry, Nemanja Vidic, Sol Campbell to name a few.
During his seven years at Southampton, three of those years were spent with Netherlands colossus Virgil Van Dijk and Long was lucky enough to score against the big centre-half when playing for Ireland in a pre euro 2016 friendly against the Dutch.
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Virgil Van Dijk Sees The Funny Side After Shane Long Prank
As with most team sports, the banter off the pitch and being in a team environment is what retired players miss most and this seemed no different during the pairs time at St Marys.
With Long more than happy to gloat following his goal against Van Dijk's Netherlands at the Aviva in 2016. Speaking about the goal on Ben Fosters podcast last week, the Republic of Ireland striker couldn't let the opportunity pass to remind his team-mate about the incident:
As I'm running away (After scoring the goal), there's a picture of Virgil on the ground behind me. So I got that framed and put it in his space in Southampton when I got back, he was raging!
I knew I wouldn't get much more against him. He took it well to be fair, he thought it was a bit of craic, a good laugh.
I believe this will be the picture in question: pic.twitter.com/6SyqCscLc3
— JustSaints (@JustSaints_) September 20, 2024
Although Van Dijk wasn't marking his club-mate at the time of the goal, the striker was quick to see the opportunity to rub his nose in it when they got back to their clubs.
