Liverpool Still Have the Same Number of Ballon d’Or Winners as Blackpool and Dukla Prague Following Salah Omission

- - Players

Gold Football with CrownDespite being one of the most prolific winners of silverware in Europe, Liverpool FC’s success still hasn’t been recognised with honours for their players on the continent.

In fact, the Reds’ haul of just one Ballon d’Or winner remains on a par with such luminaries as Blackpool and Dukla Prague.

There was hope that a second Liverpool player would be awarded the Ballon d’Or trophy in 2025, with Mo Salah having just delivered one of the all-time great seasons in European football.

But the Egyptian was once again cruelly overlooked, finishing a mind-bogglingly low fourth in the rankings.

PSG forward Ousmane Dembele was crowned the winner, with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal in second and PSG’s Vitinha in third place.

Other Liverpool representatives included Alexis Mac Allister, Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz, who finished 22nd, 28th and 29th respectively.

Ballon D’oh

It should be said that Dembele was a fitting candidate for the Ballon d’Or.

The Frenchman contributed 35 goals and 14 assists to PSG’s cause during the 2024/25 season, in which the Parisians dominated the Ligue 1 title race, reached the Club World Cup final and finally got their hands on the Champions League trophy – smashing Inter Milan 5-0 in the final.

As well as finishing as joint top goalscorer in Ligue 1, Dembele was crowned the Champions League’s player of the year after netting eight times in the competition and serving up two assists in that final.

All of the above is impressive stuff… but does it stack up to the campaign that Salah had in the Premier League, which is considered by many pundits to be the toughest domestic competition in world football?

The Egyptian provided 29 goals and 18 assists in 38 Premier League games, barely missing a minute of a season that must surely go down as one of the best in English history.

Those 47 goal involvements are easily the record in a 38-game Premier League season, too – which makes his absence from the Ballon d’Or podium all the more bizarre.

Of course, Liverpool’s early exit at the hands of PSG in the Champions League probably counted against Salah, as did the fact that the Reds were not eligible to compete at the Club World Cup in the summer.

But this is a player with 100 more goal involvements than any other Premier League player since the start of 2017/18, while only Kylian Mbappe can match Salah for goals and assists in Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues in that timeframe.

King Mo may be well regarded as the best in Britain, but when – or will – the continent ever recognise his brilliance?

Liverpool’s Ballon d’Or Winner

It’s testament to the ever-changing landscape of football that Liverpool have as many Ballon d’Or winners to their name as such luminaries like Blackpool, Dukla Prague and Ferencvaros.

But it’s true. In 2001, Michael Owen became Liverpool’s first – and only – Ballon d’Or winner following a season in which he bludgeoned 24 goals for the Reds as part of their unique treble of FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup triumphs.

And that’s despite Owen himself not even knowing what the Ballon d’Or award was…

That said, Liverpool can also claim to another Ballon d’Or winner by proxy.

Back in 1977, Kevin Keegan bid an emotional farewell to Anfield following a spell in which he lifted the European Cup, three First Division titles, the UEFA Cup and more. His new club? Hamburg, with whom King Kev would finish second in the Ballon d’Or rankings in 1977… owing much to his performances with Liverpool.

And then, in 1978 and again a year later, Keegan won the Ballon d’Or in consecutive seasons. He may have been a Hamburg player for both, but he was forged in Liverpool.

Others have come close to getting their hands on the statuette. During the 1982/83 season, Kenny Dalglish scored 20 goals and assisted countless more as the Reds romped to the First Division title and landed the League Cup. He would finish second in the Ballon d’Or rankings behind Michel Platini, with the Frenchman collecting the first of three consecutive triumphs in the voting.

In 2005, Steven Gerrard finished in third place behind the mercurial Brazilian, Ronaldinho, while three years later Fernando Torres took the bronze in behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Virgil van Dijk was second to Messi in 2019, while in 2022 Sadio Mane was runner-up behind Karim Benzema – the Senegalese ace had played the entirety of the 2021/22 campaign with Liverpool, in which he contributed enormously to FA Cup and League Cup wins as well as a run to the Champions League final.

But no: Salah has never even finished inside the top-three of the Ballon d’Or… a remarkable oversight given that the Egyptian is, unquestionably, one of the best players in European football over the past five years.

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