What Salah must do to win the Ballon d'Or
To be the best you have to beat the best and if Mohamed Salah can lead the Liverpool to UEFA Champions League glory, he should be awarded the Ballon d’Or.
Players like Mohamed Salah are normally a footnote in the narrative of Messi v Ronaldo come Ballon d'Or time. Good players who have stellar seasons rarely stand a chance when the big two are lining up for football's top individual honour. Just ask Franck Ribery, Manuel Neuer or Neymar.
But if the diminutive Egyptian star can lead his unfancied Liverpool past Ronaldo's mighty winning machine Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final, he deserves to win the Golden orb and break football's most polarising duopoly.
Unlike his first foray into England it's been a dream debut season in the Premier League for Salah. With 44 goals in all competitions, he's become the first player to surpass 32 goals in a 38-game Premier League season.
He's also stepped up on the international stage, guiding Egypt to its first FIFA World Cup finals in 28 years, comfortably topping its qualifying group in the process.
In less than two years, the player who left Chelsea with a whimper, has burst back into the football consciousness with a bang via Liverpool. Now his biggest test awaits in Kyiv on Sunday (AEST).
And it won't be easy. Liverpool will have to contain the most successful Real Madrid side in Champions League history, out to win its fourth final in the last five years.
Zinedine Zidane's awe-inspiring team can destroy possession-based units with blistering counter-attacks helmed by its central midfield passing-metronomes. If you press it, it will absorb the pressure like a piece of used chewing gum, looking to slow down the play and tire out the opponent, before lifting the intensity and going for the kill late on through any of its myriad attacking stars.
Madrid is lethal at set pieces, with the likes of Ronaldo and defensive lynchpin Sergio Ramos ale to destroy you from the air. In fact, it could be argued that Madrid has Liverpool’s measure in every position. All that is, except one. Salah's.
On his day, the 25 year-old can disrupt a defensive system with the effectiveness of toddler unleashed on a laptop. he'll need to be at his cunning, clinical best if Liverpool is to upset this savvy, wise old team, for which winning big matches has become a habit the likes of which has rarely been seen in the modern game.
To be the best you must be able to beat the best on the biggest stage and if Salah can help his team achieve the ultimate in club football, he deserves to be honoured for having the best individual season.
Even if its just a punctuation mark in the timeless narrative of Messi v Ronaldo.