The 2024 Ballon d’Or ceremony is taking place in Paris on Monday night with Rodri expected to win the award.
However, while this year might be the Manchester City and Spanish international’s moment, next year could be Mohamed Salah’s for two major reasons.
Salah has never won the award. The closest he has come to taking the prize was finishing fifth in 2019 and 2022.
This year he was shockingly not even nominated among the best 30 players despite enjoying a hugely fruitful personal campaign – even if Liverpool and Egypt as a collective failed to bring the accolades Salah will have wanted.
Liverpool’s only nominee at the ceremony is Giorgi Mamardashvili, who is in the running for the Lev Yashin award.
His omission from the list should spur the Liverpool forward on and 2025 could finally be his moment with two key factors at play.
The two key factors why Mohamed Salah will win the Ballon d’Or in 2025
Rodri’s surprise win highlights the decline of the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo era. Their hegemony has now clearly ceased to exist.
This paves the way for anyone really who was that one level below them, and Salah is well equipped to take on the baton.
2025 will be the best possible time for Salah to win the award for the key factor that he is still very much in his prime years. He will be turning 33 years old in the summer and that is usually an age where players start to enter their twilight years.
If Salah doesn’t win in 2025, you would question if he could ever win it. This season he is already going strong with 15 goal contributions for Liverpool – that makes him the fifth most productive player from Europe’s top five leagues.
On performance alone, he is worthy a nomination. However, we know performance alone isn’t enough to win the award.
Rodri has received the award largely because he playe a key role in Spain’s Euro 2024 victory and Manchester City’s Premier League title win.
