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Mo Salah Is Among the Top Contenders for the Prestigious Ballon d’Or 2019

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Mo Salah Is Among the Top Contenders for the Prestigious Ballon d’Or 2019
written by
Cairo 360

Featured image via GQ Middle East

 

Mohamed Salah has been such a huge influence and international phenomenon for so many years that we’ve probably exhausted the list of adjectives that we can use to describe such a football legend. Regardless of our current loss of words, we will never cease to write articles about Salah’s successful career path, which is on the rise day by day, not to mention, the joy that he brings to the world, and the pride that he provides to his country every single time he scores a goal. A while back, we told you all about Salah’s latest accomplishment; winning the EPL’s Golden Boot in back-to-back seasons. 

The King of Egypt ticked another milestone off his checklist for 2019! France Football, a French weekly magazine that presents the best European player with the Ballon d’Or, or Golden Ball in English, accordingly ranked Mohamed Salah as one of the top 5 candidates to win this prestigious award. The Ballon d’Or honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists. All players that have been active at European clubs are eligible.

According to Egypt Independent, Salah is currently ranked fourth, following Barcelona player and 5-time winner, Lionel Messi, and teammates, Van Dijk and Sadio Mane; however, Salah outranked Juventus striker, Cristiano Ronaldo who, like Messi, also won the award five times, most recently in 2017.

For those who don’t know, this is not Salah’s first time to come close to the Golden Ball. Last year, he won 6th place after Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Luka Modric, who took the cup home. If we compare this year’s nominations to 2018, we’ll find that only two of the top 5 players are still on the list. And even though Mane took 22nd place last year, he is now soaking in his well-deserved glory along with Liverpool comrades, Salah and Dijk, who wasn’t even in last year’s 30 winners. What an impressive list of achievements!

It is worth mentioning that the only Liverpool player to ever win the Ballon d’Or was Michael Owen in 2001, so keep your fingers crossed, football fans, until the announcement of the winner in December. We are rooting for you, Mohamed Salah!

 

P.S. Mohamed Salah will be joining Egypt’s National Football Team, starting the 8th of June, to begin training for AFCON.

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