Cristiano Ronaldo has just proved Mohamed Salah point once again via strange Liverpool omission

Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the Premier League’s Player of the Month for September. It’s more proof that Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is criminally underrated.

Cristiano Ronaldo was recognised as the Premier League Player of the Month ahead of Liverpool's Mohamed Salah. (Image: Erwin Spek/Soccrates/Getty Images)

"Who else?”

That was the question posed by the Premier League Twitter account when announcing that Cristiano Ronaldo had been named the Player of the Month for September. No doubt it was meant to be rhetorical, but there is a glaringly obvious answer: Mohamed Salah, that’s who else.Cristiano Ronaldo was recognised as the Premier League Player of the Month ahead of Liverpool's Mohamed Salah. (Image: Erwin Spek/Soccrates/Getty Images)

The Liverpool man has been by far and away the best player in the league over the course of September. His form has prompted multiple discussions as to whether he is currently the best player in the world. Ronaldo has scored three tap-ins, all of which came from goalkeeper errors. It’s a ludicrous outcome.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long to work out how and why it came about. The award is decided by a public vote — Ronaldo has 300 million more Instagram followers than the Premier League. Once he made the shortlist, a decision which was probably just about defensible, he was always bound to win. The legions of people who you’d never want to meet in real life, and who offer such insight as ‘Pessi’ in response to any social media post pertaining to the greatest player of all time, came out in droves to ensure the result was never in doubt.

A consensus of neutrals behind Salah may nonetheless have swung it in the Egyptian’s favour, but this has never existed. As he reminded us all of his brilliance throughout September, the discourse somehow turned to a comparison with prime Hazard. There’s nobody left in the league to compare with, so some nostalgic, rose-tinted version of a former great was revived in order to avoid giving Salah the full credit he deserves. Some in the media then had the nerve to say that Salah lacks the adulation he warrants on Merseyside. This is quite the projection: the wider world may still not have realised the greatness of the man dubbed the Egyptian King by the Kop, but Liverpool fans have known about it for a very long time indeed. The farcical win for Ronaldo is further proof, as if any were needed, that Salah remains underrated outside the confines of Anfield. Remarkably, the 29-year-old has not won the Player of the Month award since March 2018. Whether it’s Ronaldo or some other shiny new toy, public opinion always seems to favour somebody else.

This is salient when it comes to the question of Salah’s renewal. Having faced perpetual underappreciation, Liverpool is the place where the Egyptian has finally received adulation — from the stands, from his manager, from his team-mates. By hesitating over a new contract, FSG are jeopardising that, making the star man feel undervalued. If the board only realises what they have once it is gone, it will be too late.

The Forbes football rich list came out within the last month, and it revealed that Ronaldo pulls down some £61 million more than Salah per year. Much of the discrepancy comes from commercial deals, given that seemingly not even serious allegations can dent the clamour for ‘brand Ronaldo’. However, even when it comes to basic pay, Liverpool are shelling out roughly £29 million less on Salah’s contract than Manchester United are spending on Ronaldo’s. This state of affairs is completely detached from the on-pitch contributions of the pair.

A Premier League award is one thing, but Salah won’t tolerate being overshadowed by Ronaldo in matters of pay forever. The fact that age is the sticking point for FSG looks laughable in the face of the 36-year-old Portugal star’s contract. Liverpool has been the one place where Salah has not been underrated over the past few seasons — if the hierarchy continues to hold out on him, he will not see out his career at Anfield.

Source:liverpool.com