Jurgen Klopp has criticised this this year’s Ballon d’Or ceremony by questioning why some players have not found themselves in higher positions.
The Liverpool boss took aim at the French football magazine award ceremony hosted by France Football, claiming that he didn’t understand the positioning of some of the names on the list in terms of where they placed.
Lionel Messi was announced as the winner of the Ballon d’Or for 2021 last night, ahead of many people’s pick for the award Robert Lewandowski.
The German manager also questioned the placement of Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah, saying that the Egyptian should have finished higher than 7th.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Merseyside derby (see bottom of article), he was asked if there were really six better footballers in the world than Salah, to which he said: “I’m really not sure what it is about it 100%.
“You can always give to Lionel Messi for the career he has and for the footballer he is but if you don’t give it to Robert Lewandowski this time then it’s quite tricky to get it at all.
“Mo (Salah) definitely should have been higher up.”
Salah is currently leading the Premier League in goals and assists, with two goals more than the next closest player and one assist more than the next closest player.
He has been awarded with a player of the month award already this season, and has scored some quite spectacular goals, with goals against Manchester City and Watford particularly noteworthy.
Meanwhile, Lewandowski has scored goals at an astonishing rate this year, netting 64 goals in just 54 games, 23 more than Messi has.
Nevertheless, the is one of football’s most coveted prizes, and will once again cause controversy in its 2022 awards list.
You can see the full video of Klopp’s press conference below.