It’s more like the Oscars - you have to people petitioning for you, paying off voters etc. You the actual best player is has very little to do with it.
I expect Mbappe or Vinicius will get it next. Madrid were so angry last time and Ballon d’Or voters really don’t like upsetting Madrid.
At least the Oscars does a job of promoting some worthy but niche films. I’ve never seen what the point of the The Ballon d’Or awards is. I mean you don’t get people worked up about Kicker or FourFourTwo awards.
I rather like the story of when Houllier told Michael Owen that he had been nominated and Owen shrugged.
Im really hoping that contract will be sorted.
Can you imagine the uproar if we dont extend after the season he has had and possible 3 trophies.
Not to forget that these stupid awards are over the calendar year, so who knows what Salah achieves together with us this season (hopefully at least a trophy, maybe two), if he’s still here by the end of the transfer window and what’s his second part of 2025 like.
If he wins something important here like at least the league and continues being highly influential here or somewhere else (if it’s not Saudi), he should be in the conversation.
I can see tomorrow’s headlines now…
“Salah isn’t aware of present perfect continuous tense shocker!”
Thought I’d never see a better forward player than Suarez playing for Liverpool. And that included the likes of Torres Owen & Fowler
But Salah with his consistency and his ability of making the hard stuff look so ridiculously simple and obvious.
Liverpool might not thank me, but get the contract out, put it on the table, let him sign it, let him write whatever numbers he wants to put on there given what he’s done now, since he’s come in and let him sign the contract and go. Salah’s at the wheel man he’s doing it, he’s doing his thing, Liverpool are back!
One of the things I am enjoying about this season from him is how front and center he put himself in speaking for the team. He was previously a pretty quiet guy, but he seems to have thrived in stepping into that role with some of the older lads having left. And he’s really surprising me at how good he is at it.
Some might argue he is doing it as part of a contract negotiation (“look at important I am to the changing room”), but I think we’ve got hints before that he was pretty central to the team culture behind the scenes and now he’s just doing it more publicly.
I think its just all the coffee he now drinks…
There was an interview recently where he compared his leadership to Virgil’s. Said he’s not the shouty direct type but gets alongside players (at the coffee bar) and they open up to him. He said he’d never ‘snitch’ to the manager which was quite funny.
He’s a superstar but managed to stay a decent human and team player. The opposite of Ronaldo
What’s most noticeable about Salah this season is that he seems to really enjoying himself, every moment of it. Look at his reaction after the second goal, as exhilarated as myself.
Honestly that’s why I’m rooting for him to take Núñez under his wing. I think if there’s anyone in the squad who can help the latter, it’s him.
Doesn’t harm that he’s been learning Spanish of late too, I remember reading somewhere.
Carragher is apparently getting some backlash for saying that Salah won’t win the ballon d’Or because he plays AFCON not the Euros or CONCACAF but I think this is exactly what he was talking about (rather than saying he doesn’t think he deserves it).
There always seems to be an excuse for Salah not winning or even being nominated for these awards. “He doesn’t wow you”, “he isn’t the most graceful”, etc and all Carragher was saying is that the people who vote for the award don’t watch or give a fuck about AFCON - and they pretend that the Euros, World Cup or CONCACAF are top level competitions.
If we win the league and Champions League I think he will win it but otherwise I think someone at Madrid will because they seem to base their entire club around getting players to win that crap.
…because he joins Madrid on a free in the summer?
He said AFCON isn’t a major tournament and then scoffed and sneered at Richards and Sturridge when they told him it is important for many people. Prick.
I will sound like a dinosaur, but I am close to not giving a stuff about the ballon d’Or. My main view is that it is close to meaningless to dish out individual awards for a team sport.
With that said, of course I can see the way the world has gone, so there’s a sense that you have to keep up with it, even if you don’t care for it.
At that point, all those years of Messi and Ronaldo going back and forth were fine, as they were two of the greatest players to ever play (Messi was better of course). Still, both of them got 1-2 more than they should have done due to reputation, and other great players missed out when they were perhaps more deserving. There was no imagination whatsoever in the voting.
I thought last year was shameful when Real Madrid boycotted the whole thing because their man Vinicius Jr didn’t win. It was disrespectful to Rodri, who was a worthy competitor.
If Real Madrid are ‘rewarded’ with one of their players winning it again right away, after their no-show, that would be a shame.
Now for Mo Salah. He is very deserving. He is hitting the lights out. If we win the Premier League he should be nailed on. But he probably won’t be. It might also require that we win the Champions League too. And that’s because there might be a suspicion that his face doesn’t fit. Not Mo himself, but as an AFCON star, rather than one from a higher profile federation.
So it’s a bit political as well.
Personally I can’t be doing with it, but for Mo’s sake, as it means something to the players, I would love to see him win it.
Again, for me, an individual award for a team sport all seems rather silly, especially the way this particular one is so hyped up.
That’s how it has been reported and I think its a very unfair reading of his statement. He was talking about in the eyes of the ballon d’Or voter and I don’t think he’s wrong. For some reason ballon d’Or voting seems to lend an outsized weight towards achievements for national teams, a far more random and uncontrollable factor, than the consistent performances of club football.
Salah has been the best player in Africa for at least 5 years and made the final of AFCON twice but his highest ever finish was 5th. I don’t think the voters give a crap about that tournament.
But really the point Carragher should have made is that the reason Salah is unlikely to win is because the ballon d’Or is a bought award. Clubs are paying people or rewarding people to vote for their player and Liverpool aren’t doing that - Madrid are, Barcelona are, Bayern Munich are, Man City are.
