Despite considerable support for this year’s Ballon d’Or and another stellar season at Anfield, Mo Salah could only manage fourth place in this year’s Ballon d’Or listings. His placing does represent the Egyptian’s best return, having previously placed 6th in 2018 and 5th in 2019 and 2022.
This year’s trophy was collected by PSG’s reinvigorated Ousmane Dembele, ahead of wonderkid Lamine Yamal and Dembele’s club teammate Vitinha, in second and third, respectively.
The only other Premier League player to make the top 10 was Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, who was also the highest-ranked English player. Gianluigi Donnarumma, who now plies his trade at Manchester City, was 9th.
Harry Kane could only manage 13th despite another impressive season at Bayern, while Viktor Gyokeres came in 15th while also collecting the Gerd Müller Trophy for being the striker to bag the most goals in the top European divisions.
Dembele’s win was expected. A month ago, he was priced at ¼ to pick up the trophy, as reported at FIRST.com (source: https://first.com/sports-betting/football-betting-sites). He scored 35 goals and provided 16 assists for PSG as they won Ligue 1 and became only the second French winners of the Champions League.
But Salah will be one of a handful of players who may feel disappointed not to have come out ahead of the Frenchman. Dembele’s 51 goal contribution figure was impressive, but it was bested by Raphinha, Salah, and Kane with 59, 57, and 55 contributions, respectively. Raphinha ranked 5th while Kane only managed 13th place despite his stellar season.
Risen From The Ashes
Dembele may have benefited from his Phoenix story. At 20 years old, Dembele made a €148m move to Barcelona. Although he was starting to show glimpses of the star he would become during his final couple of seasons at the Camp Nou, the shift to Paris is what really transformed Dembele.
In 2023, PSG paid just over €50m. He would go on to win Ligue 1 in his first season before repeating the feat last year and adding the Champions League. His value has bounced to around €100m after his performance.
Despite that, there was a growing belief that Salah had a decent shout at this year’s accolade. He provided more contributions than Dembele over the course of the season, helped Arne Slot’s Liverpool win the league at a canter, and headed a list of four Anfield players to be shortlisted. But the vote went the way of the bookie’s odds, at least for the top five positions.
Other than Salah, it was a somewhat disappointing night for Liverpool’s nominated players. Alex Mac Allister ranked 22nd while Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz placed 28th and 29th, respectively. Alisson was also listed for the goalkeeping award, the Lev Yashin trophy – eventually won by Donnarumma.
In the women’s trophy, the Ballon d’Or Féminin, Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati picked up the award for the third consecutive year, taking the Catalan club’s total haul of Ballon d’Or trophies to 17. Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo placed 2nd and 3rd, while Alexia Putellas (Barcelona) and Chloe Kelly (Arsenal) rounded out the top five.
Content supplied.
Image Source: unsplash.com
