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Ed Dove
Egypt striker Mohamed Salah’s breathtaking season for Liverpool will further cement his place in the upper echelon of African stars, so it’s a shame he’ll never win the Ballon d’Or unless he plays in a major tournament…
Suggestions that Omar Marmoush was ready to take Salah’s mantle as the English Premier League‘s outstanding African player proved premature on Sunday, when the latter delivered another masterclass in Liverpool‘s 2-0 victory at Manchester City.
Salah’s contribution kept the Reds on course for the league title, while once again reopening the debate on where he stands among the EPL’s all-time great players, and Africa’s best footballer of all time.
Salah now has 182 league goals, putting him sixth in the all-time EPL goal-scoring charts, and he is on the cusp of the top three — with Sergio Aguero (184 goals) and Andrew Cole (187) likely to be overtaken in the weeks to come.
Former player Jamie Carragher argued in a controversial post-match segment on Sky Sports that Salah was ‘having a Messi and Ronaldo season,’ but he doubted Salah’s Ballon d’Or prospects due to the fact that — as an Egyptian — he was ‘not playing in a major tournament’ and risked being snubbed for the grandest individual prize in the game unless he wins the Champions League.
“Salah is at a disadvantage playing for Egypt in terms of him winning the Ballon d’Or,” Carragher later moved to explain on X. “If Salah had an average season at LFC but won the AFCON and was [Player of the Tournament], I don’t think he’d win the Ballon d’Or, because I don’t think the AFCON carries the weight of other tournaments.”
Unpopular as his comments are proving, there is a salient point beneath the awkward exchange with his fellow pundits, with Salah’s hopes of Ballon d’Or glory before his career ends likely to rest almost exclusively on his club exploits.
Regardless of Ballon d’Or glory or not, Salah’s breathtaking season — potentially as his final chapter in a legendary stint at Anfield — will further cement his place in the upper echelon of African players the game has seen.
What may ultimately deny him top spot, ahead of Samuel Eto’o, is a limited silverware haul to show for all of his tremendous seasons at Liverpool — a consequence, in no small part, of Manchester City’s relentless winning habit under Guardiola.
Salah is chasing only his second league title in England, while he’s won only one of three UEFA Champions League finals, and won only one FA Cup final — a surprisingly underwhelming return for all the glory that Jürgen Klopp restored to Anfield.
In international football, Salah’s defining impact may be inspiring Egypt to the 2018 World Cup — even if injury prevented him from truly making his mark on the competition — while his impressive showings at the 2017 and 2021 AFCONs brought neither a title nor a Player of the Tournament gong.
Liverpool fans are unlikely to care, with Salah’s consistent excellence helping them reclaim top billing in English football while leaving his own legacy as one of the Premier League’s greatest players.
As for Marmoush, he has had his moments since arriving in English football from Eintracht Frankfurt — not least last weekend’s stunning 14-minute hat-trick against Newcastle United — but he struggled to make an impact against a magnificent Liverpool team, with the limitations of this current City iteration fully exposed before a watching world.
In the absence of Erling Haaland, Marmoush partnered Phil Foden as one of two central attacking options for Pep Guardiola, and at least he fared better in the role than the England international.
He gave Liverpool’s defenders something to think about with his movement and direct running, and looked to have equalised on the half-hour mark after picking up Foden’s ball only to have been offside.
Marmoush appeared to prompt Guardiola’s ire during a first-half exchange between the pair, although the North African looked far sharper than his pedestrian teammates — perhaps with the exception of Jérémy Doku — notably drawing a save from Alisson with a decent attempt at goal.
In truth, however, Liverpool steadily took control of the contest after they opened the scoring — with both Marmoush and Foden marshalled effectively by Ibrahima Konaté and Virgil van Dijk.
City’s defenders, by contrast, had no solution to Salah.
Still in a stand-off with the club, with his future uncertain, the veteran was simply imperious, taking his direct-goal-contribution tally for the season to 51 with the opener and an assist for Dominik Szoboszlai to kill off this meagre City side.
For the first goal, in the 14th minute, Szoboszlai nonchalantly flicked an Alexis Mac Allister corner into Salah’s path, and the Egyptian, cutting in from the right, slammed a left-footed effort into the corner of Ederson’s net via a deflection from Nathan Aké‘s outstretched foot.
For the second, 23 minutes later, there were shades of Salah’s iconic wondergoal against City in October 2022, although this time, after bringing the ball down, dribbling into the box while surrounded by defenders, and bearing down towards goal, he opted to lay it off to Szoboszlai rather than go himself.
The Hungary international controlled the ball and sent a low effort beyond a wrong-footed Éderson as the Reds –surely romping to the title now — delivered a statement victory.
“It is incredible,” Salah said on Sky Sports after the match. “It’s a very hard place to come and play here, they are a tough team and they have an incredible manager. I am glad in the end we won the game. It’s special, especially when you are in the title race; it’s incredible. Hopefully we keep calm because sometimes the pressure gets to us.”
In truth, Salah could have had a bigger impact on the scoreline, at one point being blocked in his tracks by Abdukodir Khusanov after escaping the attentions of Ake. The Uzbek defender also denied Szoboszlai late after the latter had been played in by Salah.
Reds boss Arne Slot insisted that the ‘numbers speak for themselves,’ when asked to assess Salah’s level of performance, and the volume of the North African’s contribution this season has underpinned Liverpool’s title challenge while setting himself up for an all-time great personal campaign.
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Laurens: Salah having the best individual Premier League season ever
Julien Laurens praises Mo Salah’s incredible form for Liverpool this season and compares him to other Premier League legends.
Salah’s goal was his 25th in 27 league outings, while his assist for Szoboszlai was his 16th in the top flight this term. He also has five goals and five assists in the UEFA Champions League and Carabao Cup, with the Merseysiders still alive in both competitions.
In the league, he’s six goals ahead of Alexander Isak with 11 matches to play, firmly on course for his fourth Golden Boot — and his first since 2022 — which would see him equal Thierry Henry as the only player to win the award four time during the Premier League era. He’ll also fancy his chances of eclipsing his best Premier League tally of 32 goals in that mesmerising 2017-18 season.
No player in the division has more assists than Salah, and he appears primed to follow in the footsteps of Harry Kane, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Andrew Cole to top both the goal and assists charts in the same season.
With 41 combined goal contributions in the league this term, he is well clear of his nearest contenders for goals-assists combined across Europe — with Kane and Marmoush both on 27 combined. Perhaps it might have been a different story had Marmoush remained in Germany, but he won’t be rivalling his compatriot across the months to come.
In Premier League history, only six players — including Salah in 2017-18 — have registered more combined goals and assists in a single season, and the Egyptian’s tally is only six off Alan Shearer’s haul of 47 in 1994-95.
“It is opinion,” Salah said Sky Sports when asked if this was his best Premier League campaign. “Maybe people prefer my first seasons, but I prefer now because winning the league, helping the young players, it is special.
“We need another title. Me and the big guys in the team, we need another title.”
Now 11 points clear, that appears a safe bet, but has Salah done enough to be considered the league’s all-time greatest player — assuming this is his final flourish in English football?
A second league title will equal Thierry Henry’s pair victories with Arsenal — in 2002 and 2004 — while victory in the PFA Player’s Player of the Year voting will see Salah become the first player to win the award three times.
Henry never succeeded in making 40+ decisive goal contributions across two separate Premier League seasons, while one more away goal will break another record — with no one in the EPL era having scored in more that 16 away games in a single campaign.