Latest Mohamed Salah decision is beyond a JOKE | OneFootball

Certainly the way the game has voted against the Egyptian King in recent months seems to suggest so.

The 33-year-old did not travel to Paris in order to attend the recent Ballon d’Or gala. It was of course a foregone conclusion - with treble-winner Ousmane Dembele carrying off the France Football award in his home country.

Salah finished FOURTH - adrift of not only Dembele and PSG teammate Vitinha on the podium but also Lamine Yamal. The season before he didn’t even make the 30-man shortlist.

Salah's superhuman season

But it’s Salah’s omission from the recently published FIFPRO World 11 that truly beggars belief. Bear in mind that this award is for 2025 – and so covers the majority of Salah’s incredible 2024/25 Premier League-winning season.

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We’ve established previously that this was - hands down - the greatest attacking season in the league’s history.

To recap: Salah won the Premier League top goalscorer award - his fourth we might add. He also won the Premier League “Playmaker” award - offered to the player who clocked up the most assists.

He won the Premier League Player of the Season award for good measure. It was the first time EVER the same player won all three awards. In total he hit 29 goals and 18 assists - making it 47 goal contributions in a 38-game season.

That’s the biggest number of goals and assists combined since Andy Cole hit the same number in a 42-game season back in 1994.

Bear with us, there’s more.

Overall he had 57 goal contributions in 53 games. He was named the English football writers’ player of the year as well as the players’ player of the year.

Mo Salah was PEERLESS in a title-winning season. That he was denied a Ballon d’Or was a scandal. That he hasn’t been named in the FIFPRO World 11 is beyond a joke.

Salah omission from the FIFPRO World 11

So who did make it?

Let’s not quibble with Dembele. But we can certainly talk about Salah not getting in to the team when Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal and Cole Palmer made it.

Mbappe had a very good first season in Madrid - scoring 44 times. But he won nothing in 2025. His only title to date came in 2024 - when Madrid won the UEFA Super Cup.

The need to accommodate Mbappe in the lineup meanwhile cost Carlo Ancelotti his job - and pushed Madrid from LaLiga and Champions League winners to also-rans.

Give me a break.

Then there’s Yamal. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Yamal. He is a world-class talent and without him Barcelona probably wouldn’t have won the double in 2024/25.

He got 18 goals and astonishing 25 assists for the Catalans in all competitions. But nine league goals? Come on. No doubt he had moments of magic - but his season lacked consistency in comparison to Salah.

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Palmer instead of Salah is a disgrace

But the most egregious inclusion of all was Cole Palmer - and right in Salah’s position too. Let’s clear it up straightaway that Palmer is in this team because of the FIFA Club World Cup win that Chelsea experienced against PSG over the summer.

And to give Palmer his dues, he performed excellently in that tournament and especially in the final against the treble-winners. However there is no way in hell he deserves to be on this list instead of Salah.

He got one goal and three assists in his final 16 games of the Premier League season for Chelsea. He was influential in the UEFA Conference League - to his credit - but that is not the big-boy competition.

What's it going to take for Salah to be respected?

The Premier League is. Palmer’s inclusion is for the want of a better word - a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to everyone who voted for him and him being in the team only serves to disrespect Mo Salah even further.

What’s it going to take - for Salah’s superhuman endeavours to be appreciated by the world at large - including his fellow pros?

Breaking every record in the book won’t do it; maybe he needs Egypt to win the Afcon and upcoming World Cup as well as leading the Reds to a treble.

Even then, don’t hold your breath. There will be another flavour of the month around to steal his thunder.