5 reasons why Mohamed Salah will not win the Ballon d'Or in 2018

Mohamed Salah was prematurely gauged as a headless chicken when he returned to the Premier League with Liverpool. However, he has gone on to have an absolutely scintillating season where he even broke the Premier League goalscoring record after surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Alan Shearer.

Salah was signed from AS Roma for a sum of £37m and that has proved to be a great bargain. Salah, alongside Firmino and Mane have formed the deadliest attacking trio in European football right now.

The Egyptian is a fan favourite and the stands at Anfield are constantly buzzing with Salah chants. Even though he had a spectacular season, he couldn't sign off on the right note as his Champions League dreams received an anticlimactic ending.

Salah had to leave the field in the 30th minute of the final against Real Madrid after dislocating his shoulder. As a result, Liverpool lost the final and their hopes of ending the season with some kindof silverware took a huge hit.

With no major silverware in his kitty, Salah winning the Ballon d'Or looks like a tall order. On that note, let's take a look at the 5 reasons why he will not win the Ballon d'Or this season.

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#5 No silverware to show for

Salah did not win any trophies with Liverpool

For all of Salah's individual achievements that have buoyed Liverpool forward this season, he ended the campaign with no trophies. Liverpool lost to West Bromwich Albion in the 4th round of the FA Cup.

They crashed out of the League Cup at the very beginning of the season against Leicester City. Manchester City were unstoppable in the Premier League and gave no chance to their rivals after winning the league with a 19 point margin.

Liverpool's best shot at a silverware was the Champions League. They pulled off one of the upsets of the season against Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Subsequently, they sent AS Roma packing in the semis.

However, they couldn't get the better of Real in the final at Kiev and ended up being second best on the night. It's a case of 'so close, yet so far' for Klopp's men. They finished the season without any trophies to show for and when it comes to winning the Ballon d'Or, trophies matter a lot.

#4 The World Cup is here but Egypt's chances are negligible

Salah played a big hand in Egypt's qualification

One way Mohamed Salah could ensure that he wins the crown is by taking his team all the way in the World Cup. But having got through the qualifiers by the skin of their teeth, Salah will know that winning the World Cup is more of a fantasy at this point.

Egypt do not have as talented a side to boast like France, Brazil, Germany, Spain or Belgium. In fact, they are one of the weaker teams to have made it to Russia.

Mohamed Salah is a phenomenal player but there's only so much one can do. His plight is, in fact, similar to that of Messi's. Messi has Dybala, Higuain, Di Maria and Aguero playing by his side. Yet, he is not really given much of a chance to win the World Cup.

#3 Fellow competitors have shone

Lewandowski has been in great form this season

You could say that the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly is set to reach its end. But that may not exactly be good news for Mohamed Salah. Kaka was the last player to win the Ballon d'Or before Ronaldo and Messi eviscerated the rest of the competition and made it a two-horse race.

This season, however, there are other players, in addition to Messi and Ronaldo, who can really stake a claim on the greatest individual prize in football.

Robert Lewandowski has had a spectacular season and his achievements in 2017-18 are at par with that of Messi's. Bayern and Barcelona have both won the Bundesliga and La Liga and did so with considerable ease.

Meanwhile, Liverpool's best shot at a silverware was winning the Champions League and with that having crashed and burnt, Salah's chances have diminished.

#2 Messi pipped Salah to the European golden shoes

Messi had yet another great season

Salah has been in spectacular form in front of goal. As was mentioned in the previous slide, he won the Premier League golden boot. However, in the grand scheme of things, he still doesn't make the cut as his exploits were not enough to overtake a certain Lionel Messi.

Messi is one of the frontrunners for the Ballon d'Or this time around. He won the La Liga title with Barcelona and his club almost had an 'invincible' season. He also scored 34 goals in the league which is 2 more than what Salah got for Liverpool.

As a result, Mo Salah lost out on the European Golden Shoes. It also goes to show how insanely consistent Lionel Messi has been for almost a decade that even in a season where he was not at his absolute best, he still ended up being the top scorer in all of the European leagues despite not being an out and out striker.

#1 Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo with the Champions League trophy

Cristiano Ronaldo was written off halfway through the season. He had a poor start to the campaign and struggled in front of the goal like never before. The press was quick to thrash him and he was not even in the running for this year's Ballon d'Or till winter.

But he turned things around in the second half of the campaign and started scoring goals for fun again. Truth be told, he was just struggling to find the net domestically. His goalscoring form in the Champions League was nothing short of phenomenal from the get-go.

Cristiano Ronaldo ended up with 15 goals from 13 Champions League appearances this season. He also finished the La Liga campaign with 26 goals from 27 matches.

But what works most against Salah's favour is the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo's Real Madrid won the Champions League against Liverpool. As we know by now, winning the Champions League goes a long way towards helping your case in the Ballon d'Or race.

On top of that, Portugal have much more of a chance in the World Cup than Egypt and are expected to go further than the Pharaohs. The Ballon d'Or really looks like Ronaldo's to lose now.