PREDICTING SALAH’S RANKING FOR THE 2023 BALLON D’OR

Lionel Messi of Inter Miami won the Ballon d’Or this year, while Liverpool icon Mohamed Salah finished in 11th position.

Four additional City players, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Julian Alvarez, and Bernardo Silva, all made the top ten, with Silva being the most dubious of the bunch. Erling Haaland of Manchester City and Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain closed out the rankings.

After such a fantastic year with the Reds, I think it’s fair to say that Salah has been rather hard done by with the rankings. Unfortunately, team prizes still seem to impact results the most.

THE ROAD TO THE BALLON D’OR FOR SALAH

This is the fifth year in a row that the Egyptian has been ranked in the top 30, however his eleventh-place showing this year is by far his worst.

Despite leading Liverpool to the UEFA Champions League Final and scoring 45 goals in his first season with the club, Salah ultimately concluded the year in sixth place.

Liverpool colleagues Sadio Mane (fourth) and Virgil Van Dijk (second) also placed in the top five this year, joining the Egyptian King (fifth).

After the ceremony was postponed in 2020, the Liverpool attacker ended 7th in 2021, the year in which Chelsea midfielder Jorginho was granted possibly the most obscure position in the history of the competition in 3rd place.

Salah finished fifth in 2022 despite coming within two games of winning the Quadruple with Liverpool.

Even though Liverpool’s form wasn’t excellent in the first months of 2023, Mohamed Salah was his normal brilliant self.

In 2023, Salah scored 24 goals and sent out 13 assists for a total of 37 goals (in 38 appearances) across all competitions.

Salah has been more instrumental in Premier League goals this year (2023) than the runner-up for the Ballon d’Or, Erling Haaland.

Salah’s performance against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg at Anfield, in which he scored a goal and assisted on another, kept him in the spotlight even after Liverpool was eliminated from the competition.

The 31-year-old is currently in a superb scoring run, having contributed to 30 goals in his team’s last 25 Premier League games.

That’s record-breaking form in the Premier League, with 19 goals and 11 assists in just 25 games.

The goal Salah scored in stoppage time last week against Toulouse was his 43rd in European competition for Liverpool, making it the most by any player for any English team in European competition history.

While still a member of the club, Salah will undoubtedly play a major role in its future success, especially while playing alongside other talented players like Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szobozslai.