The FIFA World Cup is the tournament every soccer player wants to play at some point. Many will make their dream come true in Qatar 2022, one of the most anticipated editions of the tournament after four and a half years of wait.

Virgil van Dijk, for instance, has won it all at the club level: Champions League, Premier League, Club World Cup, and so on. But Qatar certainly has a special meaning for him, and not only because it's his first World Cup since Netherlands failed to qualify for Russia 2018. 

The Liverpool center-back is about to live one of the biggest moments in his career. However, van Dijk couldn't have even thought about it a few years back, when he felt his life was on the line.

Virgil van Dijk once wrote a will as he felt his life was at risk

Van Dijk has forged a reputation for being one of the best and strongest defenders on Earth. But things could have gone very differently for the Dutchman when he underwent surgery on a burst appendix at only 21.

“I looked death in the eye - and it was a terrible experience," van Dijk said, via The Mirror. The Dutch defender, who was playing for Groningen by then, was admitted to hospital suffering from accute appendicitis, which led to peritonitis and uraemia, a kidney infection — a combination that could prove fatal for many patients.

“I remember lying in bed," van Dijk said. "All I could see were tubes and wires on my body. My body was broken. I was not capable of anything. The worst things went through my mind.”

In fact, doctors told van Dijk's mother Ruby that his son only managed to pull through thanks to his incredible fitness levels. But van Dijk had to go through extremely difficult days, in which he feared so much for his life that he even wrote a will.

“My mother and I were both praying to God and, to be honest, we were discussing various scenarios," he said. "At one point, I had to sign these documents. It was a will. If I would die in hospital, part of my money would go to my mum.

"Nobody wanted to raise this issue, but it needed to be dealt with because there was a chance that I would die there and then. For the first time in my life, football meant nothing to me. It was not important at all. This was all about trying to stay alive."

When you go through something like that, nothing else matters. Van Dijk experienced a horrific life or death situation, way before he became the world-renowned superstar he is nowadays. Fortunately, he came through.

Behind the great defender, there's a tale of fortitude that saw van Dijk overcome a challenging situation early in his career. Now, he hopes to have a World Cup to remember with his national team. Will Netherlands go far in Qatar? Using this World Cup Predictor, you can see every potential outcome of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.