By Rotimi Daramola (@Papi_TheGreat)
If anyone told you at the end of last season that an Egyptian will, at this stage of the Premier League, be topping the scorers’ chart, you’d have disagreed. At the time, the most popular Egyptians plying their trade in the PL was Hegazi of West Brom and Elneny of Arsenal. And both players weren’t very notorious for scoring goals.
Fast forward to April 2018, and Mohamed Salah has become as popular as the pyramids of Egypt. From tearing teams apart for his Liverpool side to being described as the “Egyptian King,” he is having the time of his life.
He arrived Liverpool last summer, after having a decent season with AS Roma. He has just scored 15 goals for the Italian outfit the season before and had caught the attention of the Liverpool board. They took a risk and now it is paying off.
His two goals against AS Roma in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League took his goal tally to 43 this season, taking him one above Cristiano Ronaldo and a couple more above Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
He is still chasing Ian Rush’s record but the Egyptian has already obliterated a couple of long-standing records this season. And that’s what has made greats like Steven Gerrard to describe him as the best player on the planet.
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Salah has outperformed all expectations. And now he is being mentioned in the same context as Ronaldo and Messi. He seems to be the first player to be good enough to break the long-standing duopoly.
But has he done enough to win the Ballon d’Or or FIFA’s The Best Player of the Year award?
In what has already been an eventful season for Liverpool, Salah has scored 31 goals in the Premier League. This feat puts him head and shoulders above every other player in the league as regards goals. And the season is not even over yet.
His 10 goals for Liverpool in the Champions League is the most any Liverpool player has managed in the history of the UCL.
After his brace against Roma, Salah has now scored more goals than any other Liverpool player in a single campaign in Europe’s elite club competition. With his 31 Premier League goals, he is also the highest scoring African player in a single Premier League season, moving ahead of Didier Drogba’s 29-goal total from the 2009-10 season.
There are still a few records left to break. With Liverpool very much in the UCL and with some PL games left to be played, Mohamed Salah could still reach and break these records. But will all these be enough for the Egyptian to be crowned the best player of the year?
Remember, it is a World Cup year. And his performance at the mundial will go a long way in determining whether or not he is crowned the best in the world. So, what do you think? Do you think this African can become the best player of the year?
Leave us a comment and share your thoughts with us.
i don’t think he deserve it, there are a lot off players whom are more better than him