Jamie Carragher says he's doubling down on controversial Mohamed Salah comment which 'caused a big storm'
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Jamie Carragher and Mohamed Salah have not exactly been the best of friends over the years.
The Reds have been one of the most dominant forces in English football in recent years, and it looks as if that trend is going to continue this season too.
Liverpool sit top of the Premier League after winning their first five games of the season, the only team to take maximum points.
They seem to be picking up where they left off in Arne Slot’s first season, although not everything went to plan despite picking up the title.
One thing that went wrong was Liverpool’s Champions League campaign, as despite finishing top of the League phase, they were knocked out in the next round by eventual winners PSG.
At the time, it was a result that hurt a lot, but fast forward to now, and Carragher thinks it may have just cost Salah the biggest prize of all.
Photo by Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images
Monday night saw Ousmane Dembele win the Ballon d’Or, with Salah, somehow, not even finishing in the top three.
Although the award has lost a little bit of credibility over the years, every player still wants to win it, and Salah has admitted he is desperate to win for his country.
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However, Carragher once mentioned how it would be hard for him to do that as AFCON is not a ‘major tournament’, something that saw him face a lot of backlash.
He has now doubled down on his point, though, and believes that due to this, Salah needed to win the Champions League if he was to stand a chance.
“I go back to something I said that obviously caused a big storm at the time about the African Cup of Nations, but whether we like it or not, I do feel the biggest trophies play a part,” Carragher said on The Overlap.
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“Normally around a World Cup year or a Euro year, whoever is player of the tournament would more often than not get the trophy.
“So I think the Champions League also plays a big part.
I think if Liverpool beat Paris Saint-Germain in that game, Liverpool maybe get to the semis and he might win it, who knows!
But I do think he probably would have got it.”
If the Egyptian was to win the award, this year felt like his best chance, although next year feels like his last opportunity.
Now 33, the winger has just two years left on his contract at Anfield, meaning that his time is rapidly running out.
However, if he wins the Premier League and the Champions League, as well as AFCON with Egypt, he stands a very good chance of getting it, especially if he puts up numbers like he has done in recent seasons.
It is, of course, a very big ask, but if anyone can do it, it is him, and even though he would be 34, that has not stopped the likes of Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema in the past.