LONDON – Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah’s virtuoso display in the 5-2 winover AS Roma on Tuesday brought his side to the brink of the ChampionsLeague final and posed a serious threat to Lionel Messi and CristianoRonaldo’s grip on the Ballon d’Or award.
The Egyptian scored two brilliant goals in the first half against hisformer club to set Jurgen Klopp’s side on their way to victory in thesemi-final first leg at Anfield. He set up two more in the second half tocap a thrilling evening.
Salah’s importance was further demonstrated by the fact Roma scored the twogoals that give them a slither of hope of turning the tie around after hehad been substituted.
The Egyptian’s strikes brought him to a remarkable 43 goals in allcompetitions this season, keeping him at the front of the list of topscorers in Europe, one ahead of Real Madrid’s talisman Ronaldo and twoahead of Barcelona’s Messi.
The Spain-based duo have had a stranglehold on the prestigious Ballon d’Oraward since 2008, each winning the trophy for the world’s best player fivetimes. But Salah’s decisive performances are threatening to break thathegemony.
Since signing from Roma last season, the 25-year-old has already equalledthe Premier League record for goals in a 38-game season with 31. He alsorecently pipped Kevin de Bruyne, Leroy Sane and David Silva of runawaychampions Manchester City to the PFA Player of the Year award.
*WORLD CLASS*His manager Klopp encouraged reporters to stake Salah’s claim as the bestin the world while admitting he faces serious competition.
“If you think he’s the best in the world, write it or say it,” said Klopp.
“He is in outstandingly good shape, in world-class shape, 100 percent. Tobe the best in the world you need to do that over a longer period, I think.There are a few others who are not too bad.”
The Ballon d’Or has gone to a winner of the Champions League for the lastfour years and Liverpool may have to lift a sixth European Cup in Kiev ifSalah is to usurp double holder Ronaldo, whose Real side face Bayern Munichin the other semi-final.
Messi could also stake his claim to win the award for a sixth time with aninfluential performance for Argentina at the World Cup.
But Salah will also be in Russia, the leading light of an Egypt team makingtheir first appearance in the tournament for 28 years.
If Salah leads Egypt out of Group A and steers them towards thequarter-finals, he will be able to make an even stronger case to prise thehighly coveted individual award from the two greats of the game.