Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has admitted basketball legend LeBron James is one of his various sporting heroes.

James is widely considered one of the best NBA players of all time, rivalling Michael Jordan for the status of the greatest ever. He is also a Liverpool fan and shareholder through his partnership with club owners Fenway Sports Group.

In recent weeks, Liverpool have unveiled a new leisurewear range in collaboration with James’ personal brand under the Nike umbrella. As part of promotions, he featured in a video and on billboards with Van Dijk.

In a roundtable interview with journalists from the Liverpool beat, Van Dijk revealed he is motivated by James’ ‘Strive For Greatness’ motto.

“That phrase that he uses is perfect and could be used for a lot of things,” Van Dijk said. “For me, I definitely try and follow that because I want to achieve the most I can in life and get the maximum out of myself, the team and the position we are in.

“We are in a good place to do that this season – again.

“There are no guarantees but we feel like it is quite special with the way we have overcome things as a group, situations like the news of the manager [leaving], at the start of the season all the red cards, how we dealt with the injuries and we cannot forget the young boys. It has been a special season so far and now we have to see how it ends.

“I saw the billboard this week and it is amazing. I like basketball. I look at all the top athletes at the highest level because I feel like they all have a big role, either as a big role model or for their team and community, and there are so many things you can learn.

“The way they conduct themselves on the pitch or on court. Also what they do in order to be great.

“There is LeBron, [Novak] Djokovic, Roger Federer, Tom Brady – I could name so many. I like to listen to these guys and learn about how they dealt with being at the top and dealing with difficult moments but also good moments.

“We always hear about the negative sides but you also have to deal with the positives.”

Van Dijk added that though he has not yet met James in person, he was happy to have been referred to as “my guy” by the Los Angeles Lakers star.

“The King has spoken,” Van Dijk said, referring to his ‘King James’ nickname.