‘Disgrace’: Some Liverpool fans shocked over what happened to Mo Salah last night

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Mohamed Salah was overlooked at the “The Best FIFA” awards last night. Liverpool’s talisman was up for The Best FIFA Men’s Player award alongside Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski.

Lewandowski beat him to the top award with Salah coming in third, which is understandable given the ridiculous goalscoring numbers the Bayern Munich striker has been putting up. It was also forgivable that the Liverpool man came in behind Messi.

However, it was far more difficult to understand was the decision to leave Salah out of the FIFA Best World XI.

There was room enough for four forwards in a top-heavy looking side. Lewandowski and Messi took up two of the slots. Erling Haaland was slightly puzzlingly the third and most contentiously of all Cristiano Ronaldo completed the quartet.

Liverpool fans were disappointed by the team. As a result, many took to Twitter to claim that Salah’s exclusion was pure “disrespect” towards arguably the greatest player currently on the planet.

It seems that Mo may have felt the same way. Whilst Messi was present via video link for the virtual awards, Liverpool’s Egyptian king was notable by his absence.

Awards losing credibilty

Individual awards are always going to be divisive. Some think they are a waste of time in a team game. But there’s no denying the weight they are given amongst some sections of fans.

Salah’s omission from the team of the year wasn’t the only debatable decision. Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy claimed The Best FIFA Men’s Goalkeeper award. He was then left out of the Best XI in favour of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Whether fans give them credence or not, the snub will surely hurt Salah. He has spoken in the past about wanting to win individual awards. It was also the pain of being rejected at Chelsea that drove him on to being the player that he is today.

He is clearly someone who responds well when he has a point to prove. Therefore, the “disrespect” he was shown by FIFA could actually end up benefitting Liverpool.