Neville shocked as Carragher snubs Liverpool star Salah for ‘next Messi’ in team of 2024
Gary Neville was shocked as Jamie Carragher snubbed Mohamed Salah in his team of 2024 in favour of “the next Lionel Messi”.
The two pundits were picking their combined XI for the EA FC 25 Team of the Year and Neville immediately spotted that his colleague hadn’t included Salah, whose antics as he nears the end of his Liverpool contract have drawn criticism from Carragher.
Neville quizzed Carragher: “You’ve not gone for [Mohamed] Salah?!”
Jamie Carragher stunned Gary Neville by replying “no.”
A shocked Neville replied: “Oh my goodness gracious! Is that because he’s basically said he’s going to leave again this week?”
Carragher responded: “No, I’ve went for [Lamine] Yamal. He’s 16, he won the European Championship, he was the best player there.”
Gary Neville said: “He’s done very well, Yamal.”
Carragher went on to further explain why he went for Yamal over Salah.
He added: “For me, he’s going to be the next [Lionel] Messi, [Cristiano] Ronaldo type, I just think when we’re picking these things, more often than not, I know it’s not a calendar year but more often than not, if you’re picking the Ballon d’Or, it’s almost about the tournament.”
“Normally, that plays a big part and I just think watching him at that tournament, watching Spain and when you said about before about Rodri being missing, he’s been missing a little bit in the last weeks and months for Barcelona and they’ve completely fallen off a cliff, Barcelona.”
“He was sensational so I just went for Yamal.”
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Neville argued that while Yamal is “sensational” he doesn’t have the numbers to be on a par with Salah.
Neville said: “He’s sensational, I remember doing the games in the summer and he was fantastic but I think he had only scored three or four goals for Barcelona, whole of last season he wasn’t, like amazing for Barcelona.
“And I just thought Salah, you can’t deny Salah! I love that kid but Salah’s like a machine.”
Jamie Carragher argued that Salah’s form dipped significantly in the second half of last season for Liverpool while also bringing up that Egypt were knocked out at the last-16 stage of the Africa Cup of Nations to DR Congo.
He said: “If you’re taking on the calendar year, you’re taking the Africa Cup of Nations into account, aren’t you, that didn’t go particularly well for Mo and the second half of last season didn’t go particularly well for Mo.
“This first half of the season, he’s probably been the best player in the world this sort of half of the season and I just think, what that kid did in the tournament and Mo Salah didn’t have the first half of the calendar year so that’s why I went for Yamal.”
