Conor Bradley missed out on Mohamed Salah’s nomination for the FIFA Best Men’s Eleven award at this year’s ceremony. The FIFA Best Award is one of the most respected individual honors a player can receive, second only to the Ballon d’Or in terms of prestige.
For the past nine years, FIFA has hosted a grand ceremony honoring the top performers as voted for by captains, coaches and press from around the world. In the end, Ousmane Dembele was named the best male player for his performances with Paris Saint-Germain and France, with Spanish prodigy Lamine Yamal securing second place.
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé also finished third after an impressive debut season with Los Blancos. However, Salah, who finished fourth in this year’s Ballon d’Or voting, was not even named in the FIFA men’s best eleven despite his impressive performance in the 2024/25 season.
The Egyptian played a key role in Liverpool’s Premier League win last season, scoring 29 goals and providing 18 assists in 38 appearances for the Reds. However, given that the vote was only taken last month and Salah did not have much success in the 2025/26 season, recency bias may have influenced his exclusion from the Elite XI.
The 33-year-old has been sidelined by manager Arne Slott for Liverpool’s final four league games despite a less-than-stellar season so far with just four goals and three assists in the Premier League.
In a surprising move, Cole Palmer will be playing in Salah’s usual position on the right side of the pitch at the awards ceremony, despite scoring just 15 goals and making nine assists for Chelsea last season – making 23 fewer contributions than the Liverpool star.
The transparency of the award allows football fans to see who voted for whom in November’s poll, which included six Liverpool players. This includes Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo, Andy Robertson and Bradley, all of whom captain their respective national teams.
Apart from Salah, who refrained from voting for himself, Bradley was the only Liverpool player not to vote for the veteran veteran. Instead, the Northern Irishman chose Yamal as player of the year, with Salah in second place.
Liverpool’s stars also had the chance to vote for manager of the year. Some of the aforementioned players supported Arne Slott for this honor, while others chose Luis Enrique, who ultimately won this award due to his outstanding achievements at PSG.
Van Dijk, Szoboszlai and Robertson all voted for the Dutchman, while Endo, Salah and Bradley voted for Enrique, who won the Champions League with PSG earlier this year. This comes as Liverpool prepare to start the season without Salah, who flew to AFCON with Egypt.
His absence could also affect Liverpool’s upcoming games against Tottenham, Wolves and Leeds United, as well as further games against Fulham, Arsenal, Barnsley and Burnley, depending on Egypt’s progress in the tournament, which ends on January 18.
