13 crazy stats that show why Mohamed Salah was robbed of the 2025 Ballon d’Or
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah finished fourth in the 2025 Ballon d’Or, despite enjoying a record-breaking season with the Reds in the Premier League.
PSG’s Ousmane Dembele claimed the prize last night, with Lamine Yamal and Vtinha also receiving a podium finish.
Ultimately, the Ballon d’Or is heavily weighted towards the Champions League and that’s the only reason we can think of as to why Salah finished so low down.
The Egyptian forward carried Liverpool to their first Premier League title since 2020 and boasted better numbers than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues.
Along with several Salah’s teammates and coaches backing him to win the Ballon d’Or, even a number of his rivals were backing him to win the award ahead of Dembele.
Indeed, Manchester United midfielder Casemiro was backing the Liverpool forward to take home the prize last night.
“In my opinion, in this moment for me, Salah,” Casemiro told British GQ when discussing who should win the Ballon d’Or.
“He’s the best player with his impact in this game. He scores so much, assists so much.”
To illustrate just how harsh Salah’s Ballon d’Or placement truly was, we’ve gathered 11 crazy stats that prove he was robbed of the Ballon d’Or this year.
– Salah produced 47 goal contributions in the Premier League alone – 13 more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues and 20 more than Dembele produced in Ligue 1.
– With 47 goal contributions, Salah set the record for the most goal involvements ever recorded in a 38-game Premier League season.
– Across all competitions, he produced 57 goal contributions, which was also the most of any player playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
– In December 2024 alone, Salah notched seven goals and seven assists in the Premier League. That’s only eight fewer goal contributions than runner-up Lamine Yamal got during the entire 2024-25 season in La Liga.
– Salah’s tally of 47 goal contributions in the Premier League is only two fewer than Dembele (27) and Yamal (22) managed combined in Ligue 1 and La Liga, respectively.
– It’s also only two fewer than Lionel Messi’s 49 goal contributions (36 goals, 13 assists) in La Liga in 2018-19 – a campaign in which he fired Barcelona to the league title but missed out on the Champions League. Sound familiar?
– Nottingham Forest was the only Premier League club that Salah failed to score or assist against last season.
– He produced 18 goal contributions in 10 games against the Premier League ‘big six’, averaging 1.8 goal contributions per game in those fixtures.
– In the Premier League, Salah averaged a goal or assist every 71.9 minutes, the best ratio of any player in Europe’s top five leagues.
– He did this in the Premier League, which OPTA define as comfortably the strongest, most competitive in world football. Ligue 1 is fifth, ahead of the Championship, according to their algorithm.
– He provided more assists in 2024-25 (18) than any Liverpool player has in a single Premier League campaign. Prior to last season, Steve McManaman held the record with 15 assists in 1995-96.
– After scoring and assisting against Manchester City at the Etihad and Anfield, Salah became the first player in Premier League history to score and assist in both games against the reigning champions.
– In the Premier League, Salah produced 169 shot-creating actions during 2024-25. Only Lamine Yamal (188), Bruno Fernandes (193) and Cole Palmer (202) produced more in Europe’s top five leagues.
– Salah scored and assisted in more Premier League games last season (11) than Eden Hazard did in his entire career with Chelsea (10).
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