LONDON – Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah has been speaking about his future again, but his words should only lead to one conclusion when it comes to his contract.
Mohamed Salah wants to win the quadruple for Liverpool this year and he appears to want the Ballon d’Or just as much, Liverpool newspaper reported on Sunday.
There is nothing wrong with chasing the individual accolades when you perform at the level the Egyptian is capable of, and while he has dropped off a little over the last few months, Salah will collect plenty of those in the coming weeks.
“It would mean a lot to win [the Ballon d’Or],” he told FourFourTwo magazine in an interview published on Saturday.
“One of my purposes in life is to change the people, especially in my country, an Arab country — that they can achieve what they want to achieve. Those things give them more belief in themselves, that they can do whatever they want.”
Salah is a leading figure within his country and is one of the most important athletes in his continent. There is little doubt that he is already having a big influence but furthering that is an admirable intention, the paper said.
There must also be some personal gain from winning the individual trophies as well as the collective ones, with Salah’s drive clear for picking up everything in sight, the paper added.
“In my mind I’m always choosing myself as the best,” he explained. “I don’t choose anyone other than me. It’s always opinion, though. I respect all other players.”
That has always been Salah’s stance and it should come as no surprise. He has openly spoken about winning the Ballon d’Or before and that it is a big goal of his is no secret.
When it comes to planning the rest of his career then, that might play a role. But like him being at the perfect club to contest for big titles like the Premier League and the Champions League, he is also in the best place to win that too.
“If not all three, then at least the Premier League and the Champions League,” Salah continued. “It’s a hunger. I want to win them two, three, four times. Why not? You can dream whatever you want to dream, and you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.”
That extends to the Ballon d’Or, clearly, and given he can do nothing about his country being unable to have won a major tournament, that must instead come from the club he chooses to represent for the next few seasons.
Salah’s best chance of winning the individual award is to win as many of the team ones as he can — and nowhere is that more likely than at Liverpool.
