Jamie Carragher handled the AFCON aspect of his Mo Salah debate as well as he used to defend against Thierry Henry. The Ballon d’Or is part of the problem.
“I must say I am very disappointed with Mo Salah,” said a righteous Jamie Carragher in December; by February, the feeling is almost certainly mutual.
“Liverpool have Real Madrid midweek and Man City at the weekend. That’s the story right now,” he continued, berating the “selfish” forward for his increasing habit of happily fuelling speculation over his future instead of Doing His Talking On The Pitch or some other such tired cliche.
Whatever his chosen carb-free equivalent of cake is, Salah has had and eaten it all season long: he was excellent even with a missed penalty in that Champions League group-phase victory over Real before a now customary goal and assist inspired a win over Manchester City four days later, after which he declared himself “disappointed” not to have received a contract offer yet from the club.
Salah has certainly tempered his post-match comments in recent weeks but 30 goals and 21 assists in 38 games do speak volumes.
Yet noise still surrounds him and perhaps the “obsessed” accusation he levelled at Carragher in January was not all that far off.
It is not difficult to see what Carragher was trying to say during the debate about Salah’s chances of winning the Ballon d’Or, the relevant part of which has been conspicuously removed from the clips posted on any and all Sky Sports platforms: the Africa Cup of Nations does not hold nearly the same heft as the Champions League, World Cup, European Championship or even Copa America in the wider voting patterns of the award, much like the Asian Cup or Gold Cup.
When Ivory Coast hosted and won the tournament in 2024, the sole African representative on that year’s 30-man shortlist was Ademola Lookman, who finished runner-up with Nigeria but can likely credit his Europa League final hat-trick for coming 14th in the Ballon d’Or vote.
Sadio Mane and Salah were in the top five in 2022 after facing each other in that year’s AFCON final with Senegal and Egypt, but perhaps their exploits in carrying Liverpool close to a Quadruple weighed heaviest.
Riyad Mahrez captained Algeria to the trophy in 2019 after winning a domestic Treble with Manchester City but he came 10th in the Ballon d’Or vote and was not even the highest-ranked player for his club, finishing behind Nations League champion Bernardo Silva.
While it is a disheartening, regrettable trend, it undeniably, tangibly and demonstrably exists. But that is a problem and the relentless Eurocentrification of world football should be called out rather than reinforced, overlooked, dismissed or scoffed at. Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge should be praised for not letting it slide and Carragher’s reaction to that was the most disappointing aspect.
He has since clarified his apparent “major tournament” misspeak and a generous assessment of his explanation of the worst part – the “oh my God”, Brent-like glance at the camera and muttering under his breath when Richards corrected him – is that Carragher is simply clinically online and painfully aware of his platform.
‘The face I pulled when Micah interjected was nothing to do with the merits of the tournament, I just knew as soon as he did what the reaction was going to be!’ he later posted, obviously on Twitter, obviously to more reaction. And obviously Joey Barton waded in to back Carragher and thus neatly confirm which side of the argument was wrong.
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But the optics were remarkably uncomfortable and those forced to uphold AFCON and its legitimacy and standing in the world game are used to the ‘clumsy’ wording defence, the ignorance both intended and accidental, the disrespect both perceived and genuine.
It is something we have all been guilty of to some degree, looking at the tournament as first and foremost a mid-season inconvenience which biennially robs Premier League clubs of their best players for weeks at often the toughest, busiest and most interesting time of a campaign. Those same players consider it an honour, a privilege, a career goal to represent their country and people on such a vast, glorious stage, and to disregard that is deeply ignorant.
We can all do better, but especially so when pulled up on it, even if the camera glare might blind us into digging the hole further.
Perhaps the secret lies in the initial debate and some of the weird modern importance the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry has imbued on the Ballon d’Or could be transferred to something actually meaningful like AFCON instead. It would avoid situations like these, prevent childish football clubs losing their entire minds over incredibly politicised awards and force Rio Ferdinand to find something else to shout during the Champions League final.
Michael Owen remains, for now, the last and only Liverpool player to win it after scoring 24 goals, assisting seven and winning the FA Cup, League Cup (the final of which he missed), UEFA Cup, Super Cup and Charity Shield in 2001. Even then, in their announcement UEFA cited ‘his best performance’ coming with a hat-trick for England against Germany in that World Cup qualifier.
In a calendar year with no “major tournament” representation other than a Copa America, the semi-finals of which were competed between Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico and Honduras, those were the pickings and they were slim.
“Something like the Ballon d’Or carries massive weight abroad but it carries no weight at home,” Owen would say decades later. “When I won it I didn’t even know what it is.” It sounds like a happier time. What changed?
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