Champions League midfielder believes Liverpool have a genuine Ballon d’Or contender this year | OneFootball

Liverpool have only ever had one Ballon d’Or winner in the 69-year history of the award (Michael Owen in 2001), but a former Evertonian believes that a current Anfield star could scoop the prize this year.

The closest that any Red has come to it in recent years was Virgil van Dijk’s second-place finish in 2019. Sadio Mane was also a runner-up in 2022, although he’d moved to Bayern Munich by the time the results were announced.

Jamie Carragher, Luis Garcia, Thierry Henry and Arsene Wenger have all made the case for Mo Salah to win the biggest individual prize in football in a few months’ time, and a current Champions League player has now echoed such sentiments.

Onana claims Salah is a genuine Ballon d’Or candidate

In a feature for Sky Sports, Aston Villa midfielder Amadou Onana was asked to name the toughest opponent he’s faced, and he immediately put forward the Egyptian’s name.

The ex-Everton player also cited Salah as a potential Ballon d’Or winner, saying: “I didn’t play directly against him on a one-v-one but we played against Liverpool and I think Mo Salah at the minute is just the main man. He’s really rapid, sharp, skilful; he’s got the finish. I think he’s got it all.

“If he carries on what he’s doing, I think this might be a Ballon d’Or season.”

(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Ballon d’Or might elude Salah, but he’s still a phenomenon

Onana’s comments have actually been made during a rare goalscoring lull for Salah, who’s found the net just twice in his last six Liverpool games (two penalties against Southampton), with his last open-play goal coming against Manchester City in February (Transfermarkt).

The Egyptian scored and assisted in both of the Reds’ matches against Villa this season, so we can very much see why the Belgian midfielder has cited our number 11 as the best player he’s faced.

Despite his current (comparative) slump, the 32-year-old is on a phenomenal tally of 32 goals and 22 assists for the campaign thus far and still has eight more matches in which to boost that even further.

Liverpool’s absence from the latter rounds of the Champions League could unfortunately count against him, even though only one of the last five Ballons d’Or has gone to a player who won Europe’s premier club competition in the same year.

Even if Salah misses out on the sport’s top individual prize again in 2025, Onana’s words highlight the incredibly high regard in which the Reds winger is held among his peers.