Jurgen Klopp has spoken out on Lionel Messi's Ballon d'Or win, which he narrowly beat out to Robert Lewandowski.
After the press conference in Southampton, Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp has revealed his surprise at the final Ballon d'Or standings following Monday night's showpiece in Paris, claiming Mohamed Salah finished in seventh place. The Egyptian is having another fantastic season for the Reds, and his manager is clearly adamant that his efforts deserved more credit throughout the year.
Despite a number of high-profile injuries that threatened to derail Liverpool's season, Salah helped the Reds finish third in the Premier League last season.
The reigning champions would not have made the top four without his 22 goals, as he recorded 30 (31) in all competitions for the second year in a row.
Salah, who has already found the net 17 times in 18 appearances this season, is on track to break that record if no injuries occur.
He leads the Premier League in scoring with 11 goals in 13 games, and he has six more in this season's Champions League group stages.
As a result, Klopp is surprised that he did not finish higher in the Ballon d'Or standings.
"I was surprised Mo finished seventh (in the Ballon d'Or)," he said ahead of the trip to Everton.
However, it was the only one point Klopp did not agree with.
The German, like many others, felt that his former player Robert Lewandowski had done enough to win this year's award.
"You can give it to Lionel Messi for his career, but if you don't give it to Robert Lewandowski this time, it's quite difficult to give it all," Klopp added.
Lewandowski was on course to win the award in 2020 after leading Bayern Munich to a historic treble.
However, disaster struck the 33-year-old when the awards were canceled due to the ongoing battle with COVID-19.
Nonetheless, there was still hope that Lewandowski had done enough to win this year's award.
In 2021, he scored 64 goals in 54 appearances for club and country, but that was enough to win the award.
Instead, the Bayern Munich talisman won the inaugural Striker of the Year award for his efforts.
Pini Zahavi, Lewandowski's agent, has also questioned Messi's selection for this year's award.
The super-agent stated to TZ: "Congratulations to Messi: he is an outstanding player and an unrivaled football legend, but the Ballon d'Or for 2021 does not belong to him. No, not this time. Robert Lewandowski is the winner of the Ballon d'Or." Although Robert was not robbed, he is the man who deserves it. It's no surprise that hundreds of millions of fans are unable to accept the outcome of this prestigious football event." Monday night should have concluded with Robert receiving his first Ballon d'Or."
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