In the past 10 years, there have been more U.S. presidents than Ballon d'Or winners. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have enjoyed a duopoly over the award, with five Ballon d'Ors each since Kaka won in 2007. The Mo Salah Ballon d'Or campagin could change that.
Salah was named PFA Player of the Year on Sunday, and he has a chance to add a Champions League title to his résumé within the next month. Salah could then follow European glory with a dark horse run in the World Cup, with Egypt having drawn host nation Russia, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia in Group A.
First, Salah must lead Liverpool to a semifinal win against Roma, his former club. After PSG spent $262 million to earn the right to pay Neymar an additional $300 million in wages, almost any summer transfer from last year looks like a steal. But Salah's $60 million transfer to Liverpool has proven to be nothing short of a heist that would make Butch Cassidy proud.
Salah needs just one goal over his next four Premier League games to break the EPL single-season scoring record shared by Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Alan Shearer. He's been equally impressive in the Champions League this season, with nine goals in Liverpool's 12 UCL matches.
Salah has scored more goals with Liverpool in one season (41) than he did in two seasons with Roma (34).
In order to stop Salah, Roma plans to employ the same defensive strategy that stymied Messi and Suarez in the Giallorossi's dramatic 3-0 second leg comeback victory. After a performance that inspired its owner to jump into a fountain fully clothed, Roma has every reason to believe it is up for the task at Anfield.
Still, there's no denying that the club has regretted letting Salah go. If anything else, they easily could have sold him for double what they received last summer. Sure, Jurgen Klopp's rock-and-roll football has brought out the best in Salah, but the 25-year-old has long been on an upward trajectory.
Salah scored 34 goals in 83 games over two seasons with Roma, but instead of holding onto the man now known as the Egyptian King, the club opted for short term profit. The sum of Roma's four most expensive transfer acquisitions last summer matched what they received from the Salah sale alone.
The resulting problem is not in the quality of players Roma signed, but rather in the immediate need for a result. Turkish right winger Cengiz Under has shown promise with seven goals in 27 games during his age 20 season, but it's unfair to ask him to come close to replacing Salah. Homegrown product Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma exercised his 10 million euro buy-back clause from Sassuolo last summer) is the heir apparent to Daniele de Rossi in the midfield. But the 21-year-old is still years from his prime.
20-year-old Cengiz Under has the unenviable task of replacing Salah as Roma's right winger of the future. Photo: @Dugout | Twitter
Both Under and Pellegrini will likely come on as substitutes during the first leg. Perhaps Under will have a moment of brilliance and Roma will head home with the advantage. It's more likely, though, that Salah's coronation tour will build to a crescendo when he visits Rome next week.
For Roma, the joy of ousting Barcelona could soon be drowned out by the regret of letting the sport's next superstar get away.
The18 Recommends For You
