Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah has surprisingly been beaten to the 2025 African Footballer of the Year prize, despite being the continent’s highest-ranked player in the recent Ballon d’Or vote.
Instead, the latest annual CAF award has gone to Paris Saint-Germain full back Achraf Hakimi.
Fellow Moroccan Ghizlane Chebbak picked up the women’s prize, having top scored at the delayed 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations this year, helping her team finish as runners-up.
Salah had one of the all-time great individual seasons in English football in 2024–25. The “Egyptian King” racked up 29 Premier League goals and a further 18 assists in 38 appearances, spearheading Liverpool’s march towards only a second title in 35 years.
But the Reds fell short in both domestic cup competitions, while Champions League elimination came disappointingly early at the round of 16 stage at the hands of Hakimi’s PSG.
fourth place for the 2025 Ballon d’Or
The former Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund defender had the best season of his career in 2024–25, playing 55 times across competitions as PSG completed a Ligue 1, Couple de France and Champions League treble, finally getting their hands on the elusive European trophy.
Hakimi’s 11 goals made it his most prolific campaign ever, with 16 assists on top giving him a direct goal involvement in virtually every other game.
Clearly, CAF voters valued Hakimi’s 2024–25 higher than Salah’s, with Champions League glory likely the swinging factor.
On stage receiving his award, the Madrid-born player raised in a Moroccan household said: “It’s really an honour for me to win this prestigious trophy. This trophy is not just for me—it is for all the Africans that have dreams.”
African Footballer of the Year Winners in the 20th Century
Salah Blamed for Florian Wirtz’s Liverpool Struggles
It’s been a doubly tough week for Salah, now crucified by one media report in Germany for apparently holding back £116 million ($151.8 million) summer signing Florian Wirtz.
Wirtz, who starred away from the Liverpool spotlight in Germany’s 6–0 win over Slovakia to secure automatic World Cup qualification, has found it hard since moving to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen. So far, the 22-year-old has been a shadow of the player he was in the Bundesliga and was even branded a “little boy” by Gary Neville following a recent defeat to Manchester City.
Liverpool have tried to integrate eight new faces at a combined cost in excess of £400 million into a title-winning team all at once. Wirtz isn’t the only one to sink rather than swim and a damning assessment from German publication Sport Bild brazenly claims that Salah is a “major problem” because he’s holding onto his alpha status within the team, actively prioritising more long-term teammates, and refusing to relinquish any of that to Wirtz.
“It’s noticeable that he’s overlooked Wirtz and hasn’t made any of the other summer signings, who together cost around half a billion euros, shine,” Sport Bild writes of Salah.
“Salah has provided three assists this season, all of which led to goals, all for players who have been with the club longer. Salah is increasingly becoming a major problem for Liverpool and Wirtz. He is the king of the champions, seemingly blocking their successful new beginning. And thus, the future of his successor as the attacking leader: Wirtz.”
The impassioned piece goes on to suggest there is “no doubt” that Wirtz is “intended to be the leader of the future” for Liverpool, and also posits that Salah could head to Saudi Arabia next summer, only halfway through the new two-year contract he signed with the Reds a few months ago.
READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MATCH REACTION
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mohamed Salah Beaten to Prestigious Award in Ballon d’Or Reversal.
