Mo Salah‘s odds of winning the Ballon d’Or will increase if Liverpool win trophies and Arne Slot joked that it’d be bad news for “for the one who has to pay him.”
Salah has come to the fore of the Ballon d’Or conversations during a campaign that has seen him score 30 and assist 21 in 38 games for the title favourites.
Liverpool are top of the Premier League and widely acknowledged as champions-elect, while they are also in the final of the Carabao Cup and quarter-finals of the Champions League having topped the league phase.
Whether right or wrong, team prizes enhance a player’s chances of winning individual honours and Slot accepts that fact.
“It’s a good thing that Mo is in the discussion, because it means he does well and it means we are doing well,” he said on Tuesday.
“For him to stay in that discussion he should bring in the same performances as he’s done for seven or eight months now.
“But I think in general, someone who wins the Ballon d’Or needs to win something as well, so it’s a great challenge that is in front of us but also in front of him.
“What I liked a lot is that he takes this challenge not only by scoring a big goal and a great assist against City, but he also wanted the team to win, because his defensive work rate, especially in the second half, was outstanding.
“That is I think what it takes for us to have a chance of winning something.
“If we as a team can win something, he will have a far better chance to win an individual prize like the Ballon d’Or.”
Slot’s pre-Newcastle press conference was dominated by questions following the usual Sky Sports narratives, which included comparisons between Salah and the peak output of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
“It’s so difficult to compare players with each other and it’s not fair to anyone,” Slot replied when asked if Salah’s current level was matching the best of those two players.
“I think Mo has his own career and I think Mo has been outstanding.
“Messi and Ronaldo both didn’t play the Premier League [at their peak]. I don’t want to bring them down, because these two players are incredible, but that makes the comparison maybe even more difficult.
“So Mo has had some outstanding seasons here at Liverpool and we hope he can continue this for a longer period of time.
“But to do that he first has to extend his contract, of course!”
As the head coach mentioned, Salah is enjoying arguably the best season of his career while playing out what currently stands as the final months of his time at Liverpool.
The club remain in talks with his representative Ramy Abbas Issa but with no resolution in sight, and Slot joked that Ballon d’Or-level form could complicate the matter for Fenway Sports Group.
“You can look at that in both ways,” he said.
“You can say the better he does, the more expensive he might become, and if would do much worse we would have second thoughts that we want to extend his contract!
“I think for everyone it’s the best that he brings in the performances that he does now – maybe only for the one who has to pay him it’s not the best.
“For everyone else it’s the best, because if you want to play at this club you need to be at his level.
“Otherwise probably you are almost useless to play at this club, because we only need players that are at the top of their game, because this is one of the best clubs or the best club in the world to play for.
“So he needs to have these performances for him to play here and hopefully to extend here.”
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