(Update: AS Roma boss explains the decision to sell Salah)
If you type Ballon d’Or into a search engine today, the top results all relate to Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah. Yesterday, Salah displayed his Ballon d’Or bonafides with a brace and two assists in his side’s 5-2 win over his former club AS Roma.
The Egyptian and his teammates will now head into the Rome leg of the with a +3 advantage on aggregate in their UEFA Champions League semifinal tie. For Liverpool, it’s looking like a dream European campaign, one that might end in the first trophy of the Jurgen Klopp era.
Don’t forget, Mo Salah did promise a trophy this season at Anfield.
On an individual level, the Egyptian magician on the pitch is looking the world’s best player not named Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. It has even been suggested, although by a terribly notorious troll of a pundit, he’s a more complete player right now than Ronaldo was when while he was at Manchester United.
Mohamed Salah has already claimed the PFA Player of the Year award and tied the Premier League record for single season goals scored. He has three games left to break it.
Across all competitions, he has 43 goals, the most for a Premier League player since Manchester United’s Ruud van Nistelroy in 2003-04. His nine UCL goals are the most for a Premier Leaguer since Van Nistelroy in 2002-03. He obviously has one, and most likely two, chances to eclipse that mark.
In a discussion of his late game tactics yesterday, as Roma scored twice in the final ten minutes to cut the deficit from 5-0 to 5-2, Klopp extolled the virtues of his high flying scoring sensation.
“If anyone wants to say it is my mistake that we concede the two goals because I change the striker, I have no problem with that,” the German told a news conference.
“Mo was running all the time and it would not have helped us if he gets an injury. What a player. If you think he is the best in the world, write it or say it. He is in outstandingly good shape, world-class shape, but to be the best in the world you need to do it over a longer period, I think. The other two are not bad.”
There is a ton of debate right now about the Ballon d’Or chances for Mohamed Salah. The debate about who’s the best in the world has been Ronaldo vs. Messi for quite awhile now. If anyone can bust up Messi-Ronaldo recent domination of the prestigious award, it’s probably Salah.
Of course, all of this is highly debatable.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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