Salah’s Ballon d’Or Ranking 2023: An Analysis
Liverpool legend, Mohamed Salah, has ranked in 11th place at this year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi named as the winner.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe rounded off the rankings, with four other city players in Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Julian Alvarez and Bernardo Silva all in the top ten- the latter certainly being the most questionable.
I think it’s fair to say that Salah has been pretty hard done by with the rankings after a phenomenal calendar year with the Reds, but unfortunately team prizes seem to still sway results the most.
Salah’s Journey in Ballon d’Or
It’s the fifth year on the bounce that the Egyptian has been classified in the top thirty, but with this year’s 11th place finish being his lowest.
Salah finished 6th in his debut year at Liverpool, despite scoring 45 goals and having 60 direct goal contributions in all competitions for the Reds and reaching the UEFA Champions League Final.
In 2019, The Egyptian King finished 5th with his Liverpool teammates in Sadio Mane (4th) and Virgil Van Dijk (2nd) also finishing in the top five.
After the ceremony was cancelled in 2020, the Liverpool forward finished 7th in 2021, the year in which Chelsea midfielder Jorginho was rewarded perhaps the most obscure position in the history of the competition in 3rd place.
In 2022, despite being just two games away from winning the Quadruple with Liverpool, Salah could only finish 5th in the rankings.
Salah’s 2023 Performance
Mohamed Salah has been his usual fantastic self throughout 2023, even when Liverpool’s form hadn’t been great in the opening months of the calendar year.
In 2023, Salah scored 24 goals and assisted 13 across all competitions- contributing to 37 goals in 38 games in total.
In fact, Salah has contributed directly to more goals in 2023 than the Ballon d’Or runner-up Erling Haaland in the Premier League.
Despite Liverpool not going deep into the competition, Salah still remained in the spotlight in the UEFA Champions League with a goal and an assist in the Round of 16 first leg against Real Madrid at Anfield,.
His form only improved throughout the year too, with the 31-year-old currently in a rich vein of form with 30 goal contributions in his last 25 Premier League games.
That’s 19 goals and 11 assists in those 25 Premier League games, which is record-breaking form.
Salah’s stoppage-time goal against Toulouse last week was also a record-breaking moment, with it being his 43rd European goal for Liverpool, which is more than any player of any other English club in history.
Going forward, there’s no doubt that Salah will be at the forefront of any future success whilst he remains at the club, especially alongside the likes of Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szobozslai.
