Mohamed Salah, a Ballon d’Or fourth-placed ‘snub’ and the ‘wrath’ risked
Mohamed Salah was ‘overlooked’ and ‘snubbed’ as the best footballer on the planet was NOT the Liverpool man!
Never mind that he didn’t win the Champions League, he deserved it because this means more and all that.
Why oh why is Salah only the fourth best player in the world?
First, Mohamed Salah was always going to ‘miss out’ on the Ballon d’Or. Like thousands of other footballers, he simply did not do enough. In fact, we would say he was rather lucky to finish fourth after winning the Premier League and struggling in the knock-out stages of the Champions League.
Erling Haaland won a Treble, scored a billion goals and still did not win a Ballon d’Or in 2023, so it’s hardly surprising that Salah missed out to a Treble winner, a La Liga-winning ingenue and a Treble/Nations League-winning midfielder.
But obviously that’s all no fun at all when you can pretend that a) he ‘missed out’ and b) there’s some beef.
Liverpool’s instant six-word response as Mohamed Salah misses out on Ballon d’Or speaks volumes
That’s the Mirror there, pretending that Liverpool posting ‘A season to savour from Salah’ on social media was designed to cheer up a ‘disheartened’ player, rather than just congratulate him on being named the actual fourth-best footballer in the world.
We’re told that Salah ‘didn’t even make it into the top three’ OF THE BEST FOOTBALLERS IN THE WORLD. Imagine. You know who can imagine? Wayne Rooney, Roy Keane, Andrea Pirlo, Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale and some other rather brilliant footballers who never made it onto the podium either.
In another story, we learn that ‘Mohamed Salah has been backed by a host of current and former team-mates after being overlooked for the Ballon d’Or’.
You know there’s only one Ballon d’Or, right? It’s not like being ‘overlooked’ for an England squad or a shout-out on the online HR hub after helping to carry those chairs.
Despite a stellar season where he netted an impressive 34 goals and provided 23 assists across all competitions, leading Liverpool to Premier League glory, Salah only managed to secure fourth place in the prestigious award’s voting.
Only? Only!
The Egyptian forward has kicked off the new season on a high note, already boasting three goals and three assists. However, this wasn’t enough to clinch the coveted Ballon d’Or.
Weird that. It’s almost like the Champions League might be a factor too.
In the Liverpool Echo…
Mohamed Salah Ballon d’Or record ‘getting out of hand’ as Liverpool verdict reached
This is proper bollocks. They quote Daniel Sturridge – in February, before PSG won the Treble – saying “we’re talking Ballon d’Ors now. If we’re not talking Ballon d’Ors for Mohamed Salah now, then it’s getting out of hand”.
But we are ‘talking Ballon d’Ors’; we’re talking about a fourth-place finish. You know who finished fourth in 2024? A man who won the European Championship, La Liga and the Champions League. In that context, fourth sounds pretty bloody good for winning the Premier League.
The worst, as is so often the case now, comes from SPORTbible:
Liverpool Stars Risk Salah’s Wrath With Dembele Ballon d’Or Reaction
Famously, Salah has quite the ‘wrath’ and Ibrahima Konate and Hugo Ekitike have risked it by *checks notes* congratulating Ousmane Dembele on winning it. Apparently this ‘risks angering Mohamed Salah’.
Somebody should have thought about angering Mediawatch before they wrote this shit.
Snub standard
‘Liverpool issue immediate response to Mohamed Salah Ballon d’Or snub’ – Express.
‘Liverpool’s immediate response to Mohamed Salah Ballon d’Or snub says all you need to know’ – Liverpool.com.
‘Liverpool instantly respond to Mohamed Salah Ballon d’Or snub in six-word message’ – Liverpool Echo.
‘Liverpool dressing room make feelings clear on Mohamed Salah after Ballon d’Or snub’ – Express.
‘Ballon d’Or 2025 winner crowned as Mo Salah and Lamine Yamal snubbed’ – Express.
He finished fourth, FFS. And the ‘snubbed’ Lamal finished second. Actual second in a list of the best footballers in the whole wide world at the age of 18.
READ: Six crazy Ballon d’Or rankings and where they should have finished
Swank bank
Ruben Amorim looks bemused and so he should; a stroll with his wife for lunch in Alderley Edge in Cheshire (described as ‘swanky’, obvs) has resulted in a total of four images on The Sun website and this headline:
Worried about the future, Ruben? Under-pressure Man Utd boss Amorim spotted next to sign advertising psychic
He didn’t stop next to the sandwich board. He wasn’t looking at the sandwich board. He merely walked past the sandwich board like thousands of others would that day. The difference? He was ‘spotted’ by the men who sit in their cars around ‘swanky’ Alderley Edge all day waiting for mildly famous people to go for lunch.
Oh and ‘a white t-shirt, beige jacket, brown trousers and white trainers’, in case you were wondering.
