Liverpool legend explains why 2025 is Mohamed Salah's 'best opportunity' to win Ballon d'Or

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has backed Mohamed Salah to win the Ballon d'Or in 2025 after putting up numbers in the first half of this season to rival the very best of his generation.

Salah’s goal and two assists in Liverpool's thrashing of West Ham United on Sunday took him to 30 combined Premier League goals and assists at the halfway stage of the Premier League campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo has only once surpassed that mark at this point of a season. Lionel Messi has done it just twice, leading Carragher to remark on Sky Sports that "we're seeing an 'all-time' season" from Salah.

"A few weeks ago, I said he's in the top five to ever play for Liverpool. If he takes Liverpool to a league title and ends up with PFA Players' Player of the Year, it would be the third time he's won it and no one has ever won that three times," Carragher explained.

"If he does that, he's not [just] in the top five, he's basically fighting with Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard to be [considered] Liverpool's greatest ever player. If he can add that to what he's already done at Liverpool, he leaves Ian Rush and Graeme Souness behind."

But more than further cementing his legendary Liverpool status is at stake, because the stars may have aligned for Salah to finally land a Ballon d'Or – he would become just the second ever African recipient after George Weah, and the first in  30 years.

"I always think the Ballon d'Or revolves around an international tournament or the Champions League. It's always difficult for Egypt – I don't think they've won the Africa Cup of Nations with Salah – and obviously in a World Cup as well," Carragher said.

"The fact there's no tournament in the summer [helps Salah]. If Liverpool were to win the league and get into the Champions League final, or win it, [Kylian] Mbappe hasn’t started at Real Madrid as well as he would have liked, [Erling] Haaland is not at his best, I think those factors put together will be the best opportunity [Salah] has ever had to win the Ballon d'Or.

"He's probably number one right now. If he replicates what he's done in the first half of the season [in the second half], I think he wins the Ballon d'Or."

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