The Egyptian star admits he expected his final Ballon d’Or ranking to be much better.
The 2021 Ballon d’Or saw Lionel Messi collecting his seventh prize in a controversial race with Robert Lewandowski. Many football players and fans believed the Polish star should have won the prestigious award for his amazing performances at Bayern Munich.
However, Lewandowski’s ranking was not the only shocking announcement of the night. Many observers expected Mohamed Salah to finish among the top five. However, he ended up seventh, behind Messi, Lewandowski, Jorginho, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Jurgen Klopp slammed the award for Salah’s ranking a day after the ceremony. However, the Egypt star himself has now opened up on his reaction to his Ballon d’Or ranking.
“The results of the Ballon d’Or were shocking to me,” he told DMC (via 90min). “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.
“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. I don’t know what they base their choices on, but I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy or anything.
“I have nothing to prove that there is something wrong. I really don’t know, but I was shocked at the result.”
Fans were rooting for Salah to win the AFCON and increase his chances of winning the prize this year. He and Egypt ended up losing the competition’s final against Senegal.
However, he still has three more trophies to fight for with Liverpool. Following their Carabao Cup triumph earlier this week, the Reds are the only club that have the chance to win a quadruple this season.
Be sure not to miss out on the latest news about Premier League
Download our brand new App and follow your favorite players, clubs, and much more
