‘Ignore Ballon d’Or ranking’ – Silvestre rates Liverpool’s Salah in the top three

Former Manchester United and Arsenal defender Mikael Silvestre has described Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah as the deadliest striker in the Premier League at the moment.

The two-time African Footballer of the Year dominates the scoring chart in the English top-flight with his tally of 15 goals in 18 league matches in this campaign.

His goalscoring contributions have helped the Reds to second spot in the league table, even though they have a game in hand after their Boxing Day’s fixture against Leeds United was postponed due to coronavirus cases.

Salah, however, was ranked as the seventh-best player in this year’s Ballon d’Or – a position Silvestre does not agree with.

“Mo Salah for sure, no question about it,” Silvestre told GOAL, when asked about the deadliest player in the Premier League. “Right now, he’s up there for sure. Ignore his Ballon D’or place, I love Messi but for him to be 1st, Cristiano 6th and Salah 7th? On current form right now, Mo Salah is top three for sure.”

Before retiring in 2014, Silvestre won four Premier League titles and a Champions League trophy at Manchester United, two Confederation Cups with France and other domestic club honours.

The France centre-back who briefly worked as Director of Football at Rennes, named Salah as one of his favourites African footballers alongside Liberia legend and current president, George Weah.

“Apart from Salah, it has to be George Weah. He played in France, for us to watch him for Monaco, then PSG was amazing,” the 44-year-old said.

“We were so lucky we could watch him, and we followed him when he went to AC Milan. It was just a pity it was difficult to compete internationally with Liberia but at club level he was incredible.”

While Salah is expected to feature for Egypt at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in January, Liberia did not qualify for the biennial showpiece that will take place in Cameroon.