Salah vents spleen at Ballon d’Or as Liverpool ace proffers theory over farcical result

Mohamed Salah admits only finishing seventh in the 2021 Ballon d’Or voting was a shock after his superb showing for Liverpool.

The 29-year-old has been a revelation since moving to Anfield from Roma in the summer of 2017. The Egypt international has bagged 152 goals from 235 appearances in all competitions. He has also assisted many more, with a number of pundits suggesting he could now be the best player in the world.

Salah is currently enjoying his finest campaign in a Liverpool shirt. And the former Chelsea forward was tipped as a possible Ballon d’Or winner after his 2021-2022 exploits.

However, at the November ceremony, the African finished seventh in the voting. Eyebrows were raised at the time.

Salah stayed tight-lipped but has now had his say on the matter. And it seems as though the talented striker was as surprised as anyone to be so far down the list.

“The results of the Ballon d’Or were shocking to me,” he told DMC, via The Echo. “I don’t have much to say about it, but there was nobody who expected me to finish seventh last year, but that is what happened.”

Salah has scored 27 goals this term. He rarely has a bad game and has been roundly praised by pundits and Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.

Therefore it seemed almost unbelievable that he would not be at least in the top three. However, the man with 47 international goals does not feel there was any particular agenda against him.

“I don’t think there’s a conspiracy theory or anything, but there may be inaccurate choices and there are many countries who don’t know how to vote,” he added.

“I have nothing to prove that there is something wrong and I really don’t know, but I was shocked at the result.”

Salah received 121 votes while Lionel Messi collected nearly 500