Liverpool were blessed to have two of the greatest African footballers of all-time playing for them under Jurgen Klopp.
The Reds do not have an especially successful history of players from the continent, with plenty of supporters remembering the disaster that was El Hadji Diouf in the early 2000’s.
Much was expected of Diouf after he arrived at Liverpool following a stunning 2002 World Cup with Senegal. But the striker simply could not get going at Anfield.
Behavioural problems and a very public spat with Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher meant that he is not well remembered on Merseyside.
Since then, the Reds have upgraded enormously. Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are two of the best players in Liverpool history, with Salah in particular right up there with the greatest of all-time.
Despite the Egyptian’s phenomenal success with Liverpool, though, Diouf will still not give him his due.
El Hadji Diouf snubs Mohamed Salah
There have been plenty of exceptional, world renowned African stars throughout the history of football.
As a result, it is far from a given that Salah should be declared the best of them.
Nevertheless, in the modern era at least, there are few players from anywhere on Earth who can claim to be better than Liverpool’s Egyptian King.
Not according to Diouf, though. Perhaps biased by his anti-Liverpool sentiment, the 46-year-old has named three African forwards who were better than Salah.
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His comments came via ESPN Africa, who asked Diouf whether the Reds No.11 is the best forward Africa has ever produced.
“Don’t forget we used to have Samuel Eto’o, we used to have Roger Milla,” he replied.
“And I think Mo Salah has done very well but the top scorer of Africa is still Didier Drogba.”
Salah overlooked for CAF nomination
It hasn’t just been Diouf who has been ignoring Salah’s talents this week.
On Thursday the nominations for the CAF Player of the Year were announced, with the Liverpool forward stunningly overlooked.
Salah had another very good year with the Reds, scoring 25 times and winning the Carabao Cup.
Despite that, CAF have selected 10 players to be nominated for the award, featuring the likes of goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and Brighton’s Simon Adingra.
Egypt’s poor performance in AFCON at the start of the year has clearly counted against Salah here. But still, to leave him out is an unbelievable choice. Mo deserves better.
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