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Cape Town - Former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan and ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright believes that Liverpool star Mohamed Salah is in contention to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award.
The Egyptian came back to haunt his former club in the Champions League semi-final as he registered two goals and two assists in Liverpool's 5-2 win over Roma at Anfield on Tuesday night.
The 25-year-old has scored 43 goals in all competitions as he continues to chase down the record of Liverpool great Ian Rush of 47 goals in a season.
In discussion on Sky Sports TV, Wright says that if the winger continues his goalscoring form in the upcoming Soccer World Cup (starts June 14) he has a great chance of winning football's greatest individual honour ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
"Salah is in that conversation, of course he is. With the World Cup coming in, the form he is you'd like to think he'll keep that for the World Cup," Wright said.
"Obviously depending on what Liverpool do in the Champions League, if they do go on and win it, then you have to say when you look at Cristiano Ronaldo, he's saved much of his best work for the Champions League.
"He's [Ronaldo] won the Ballon d'Or a couple of times, and not just for those reasons but if Mo Salah keeps on doing what he's doing, he's not only in the conversation, he's got a very good chance of winning it."
Strachan said that consistency is important and if Salah can do it for five or six years then he can be considered as one of the all-time greats.
"Tonight he was in that level, with Messi and Ronaldo," he said.
"But you've got to be talking about doing that for four or five years. He's doing Messi-esque things right now.
"He's left-footed, everyone knows that, but he can move you one way and then the other, but if you show him too much down the right, he'll go past you like he showed against Roma from one of his assists."
Liverpool will travel to Italy over the weekend for then their return leg on Wednesday, May 2 at the Stadio Olympico.
Kick-off is at 20:45 (SA time).
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