Incredibly, Mo Salah was not named among the top 10 players in the world by journalists from 11 different countries in this year’s Ballon d’Or voting.
Salah enjoyed an extraordinary 2024/25 season for Liverpool, leading the club to a Premier League title and helping himself to 34 goals and 23 assists across all competitions.
For his efforts, he was named the Premier League, PFA and FWA Player of the Year and had again put himself in the reckoning to be crowned the best men’s player at the Ballon d’Or.
However, he finished fourth behind winner Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal and Vitinha; he was awarded 657 points, more than half of Dembele’s 1,380.
The Ballon d’Or is awarded by journalists, with one representative per country from the top 100 in the latest FIFA rankings, and each makes a top 10 list that decides the ultimate winner.
Incredibly, journalists from Albania, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Georgia, Mexico, Panama, Romania, Switzerland, Uganda and Qatar deemed the Egyptian was not among the top 10 players in the world.
That is four African countries deeming Salah not worthy of recognition.
As for who the abovementioned countries favoured instead, Albania named Cole Palmer as the second-best player in the world, Equatorial Guinea had him fifth, and Mexico and Uganda listed him in eighth.
Switzerland, meanwhile, thought Viktor Gyokeres was worthy of sitting in the No. 5 spot and Panama had the striker in ninth – his native Sweden representative did not even list him in their top 10.
It speaks to how the perception of the award is changing and why it is not as prestigious or credible as it once was – a prime example is Scotland’s representative naming Scott McTominay at No. 1 (not to discredit his impressive season).
Salah was only deemed the best player in the world by journalists from Egypt, South Africa, Bahrain and Jordan, while Dembele was named No. 1 by 73 members of the voting panel.
The fourth-placed finish was a career high for Salah after previously finishing fifth in 2019 and 2022, but it was, again, not reflective of the year he had for Liverpool.
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