Luis Garcia has said that he gets ‘frustrated’ when Mo Salah is omitted from conversations about prospective Ballon d’Or candidates.
The Egyptian has been one of the best players in world football throughout his seven-and-a-half years at Liverpool, scoring at least 22 goals in eight consecutive seasons on Merseyside and climbing to fourth in the club’s all-time goalscoring charts with 233.
The most recent of those broke the deadlock in our 2-1 victory over Lille on Tuesday night, a result which maintained our 100% record in the Champions League this term and leaves him just one goal contribution short of reaching 40 for the campaign before the end of January.
Garcia bewildered by Salah being overlooked for Ballon d’Or
Speaking on punditry duty for Amazon Prime Video Sport after that match, Garcia insisted that Salah should at least place among the top three in this year’s Ballon d’Or standings if he were to win silverware with Liverpool this season.
The former Reds winger said: “To be honest, we’ve been talking a lot about Vinicius Jr, about Rodri, about Lamine Yamal, about the players who can win the Ballon d’Or.
“I get frustrated because Mo Salah is not even in the picture, because his numbers are there. If he manages to get two trophies – I’m not going to say all of them – he should be at least top three.”
Garcia also agreed with the assertion that Salah remains underappreciated in some quarters, stating: “He doesn’t like the focus or being in the spotlight; he enjoys playing.”
Could Salah finally scoop the Ballon d’Or in 2025?
It seems astonishing to think that, for all of Salah’s and Liverpool’s brilliance over the past decade, he’s never placed inside the top three of the Ballon d’Or standings.
In fact, the only player who’s done that in recent years while at Anfield was Virgil van Dijk, who came second to Lionel Messi in 2019. Sadio Mane also claimed silver three years later, although he’d transferred to Bayern Munich by the time the awards were conferred.
The Reds’ sole Ballon d’Or winner remains Michael Owen in 2001, but if our current number 11 were to win the Premier League and Champions League this season while maintaining his incredible individual output, he’d surely be a viable contender to take home the prize that Rodri won three months ago.
Garcia isn’t the only ex-Liverpool player to make the case for Salah to scoop that accolade this year, with Jamie Carragher believing that the Egyptian has ‘a great chance’ to do so, especially in the absence of major international tournaments which can often be decisive in such ballots.
It remains a possibility that the 32-year-old could win the Ballon d’Or in a few months’ time and no longer be playing for the Reds, with his contract saga continuing to rumble on and the forward remaining publicly non-committal about his future.
If given a choice between him winning the individual prize and staying at Anfield beyond this summer, we’d obviously select the latter, but hopefully both of those scenarios will materialise.
