Not the first time – there was a robbery at the Ballon d’Or. Like Erling Haaland in 2023, Robert Lewandowski in 2020, and Thierry Henry in 2003, Mohamed Sarah’s season was better than other players on Earth, but it wasn’t recognized by those who voted for it. At age 32, Sarah entered the final year of her contract and spent the 2024-25 season with Premier League Champions Liverpool. The best of a great career.
The Egyptians have produced 57 goal contributions (34 goals and 23 assists) in 52 matches in all competitions at the club level. Only three of these have come outside the Premier League and Champions League. He managed at least one goal and one assist in the same Premier League match on 11 separate occasions.
In one season on England’s top flight, no player has combined more goals and assists. Andy Cole and Alan Shearer both tallied 47 in the mid-1990s. difference? Cole played 40 league games, Shearer 42. Sarah participated in the 38-game campaign. It’s no wonder he was named PFA Player of the Year by both his teammates and his opponents.
Like Shearer, Salah’s Exploits delivered the title to his team. He scored the most goals in the league and placed the most assists. Take him away, the Reds won’t win the league. It’s that easy. Liverpool scored 86 points overall, with Sarah directly affecting exactly 54% of them. That doesn’t include any other goals he was involved in building up.
In the world’s most competitive league – the teams that finished 15th and 17th in the main European finals – Sarah has just started a riot. And he finished fourth at Barondoor in 2025. There have been actual winners of this award over the last 20 years, and it hasn’t had a season that was as impressive as Sarah in 2024-25.
So is he just unlucky? In part, yes. He had an individual season that was better than the three players above him, Bitinha, Raminyarmal and Osmanedembele. However, they overtook the Egyptians as PSG and Barcelona won more trophies as a team than Liverpool last season. The Egyptians are players who will join XI on the right wing in the Premier League before leaving the league.
Of course, there is arguing that Dembele is the rightful winner. He was a major driver of PSG’s four trophies during the voting period, running the Club World Cup, generating 35 goals and 16 assists in 53 games. He excelled in the Champions League and contributed goals in all knockout match bars, his first leg against Liverpool. He scored for Anfield and Arsenal.
However, 34 of his other goal contributions were made in the French competition. It is true that Ligue 1 and Couped France are not stacked up in the English competition. It’s scary to put Sarah in the French league, especially on the PSG side of Luis Enrique.
Ballon D’Or didn’t just take into consideration goals and assists. But isn’t that why Sarah should surpass his rival? Egyptian head coach Hotsam Hassan said: “They’re talking about Sarah before the ceremony.
“Based on the scale of the challenges you overcome, he deserves to measure years of brilliance, excellence and creativity in the world’s most powerful league.
“And he first reached the top for many years thanks to God, then continued to do so until he became a role model for those seeking all success. Is it time for them to choose the winners and be fair?”
It appears that Sarah’s chances to win the Barondoor are now. Despite having a 44 goal season in 2018, he finished fifth in 2019, seventh in 2021, fifth in 2022, 11th in 2023, and of course fourth this year.
Some of the players who have finished higher than that in the past few years include Antoine Griezmann (2016), Jorginho (2021), and Vinicius Junior (2024). Salah is easily superior to all three of these players.
Sadly, the Barondoor Rankings doesn’t reflect that. He certainly falls as one of the best players who won’t win it, and as one of the most abandoned players of all time. The fact that he never lowered the Baron de or top three highlights that.
