MO’S MAGICAL DISPLAY AGAINST ROMA COMPARES WITH MESSI
Salah’s magical display against Roma edges De Bruyne in my vote for Player of the Year
VOTING for the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of t he Year closes tomorrow and, until last week, I had intended to make Kevin de Bruyne my choice for our award. I would still be delighted if he won it. I have enjoyed watching Manchester City this season more than any other team over a single domestic league campaign and De Bruyne has been their best player.
If anything, the midfielder is underrated. It is not just that he can hit wonderful passes with both feet, score with finesse or ferocious power, receive the ball under pressure and look as calm as if he were in acres of space. It’s more than that. He has both the vision and the unselfishness that makes him the personification of what Pep Guardiola has built at City.
Nor does De Bruyne feel the need to boast about his talents and his triumphs. He is as close to selfeffacing as a modern footballer can be. He appeals to the old-fashioned among us who still flinch at the antics of some players for whom every victory seems to be a selfie opportunity, one more shot at selfaggrandisement. De Bruyne is not like that. He is supremely gifted but he does not f eel t he need to shout about it.
I wanted to vote for him, too, because he plays for a City team who have played such bri l l i a nt f o o t bal l this season, a team who dominated the top tier of the English league as majestically as any team in recent memory. This City team brought fantasy football off the pages of newspapers and the internet and put it on the pitch.
They played with the kind of expression and beauty that we have not seen before in one season. They cannot yet claim the greatness that the Liverpool teams of the Seventies and Eighties and the Manchester United sides of the Nineties and 2000s earned through the longevity of their brilliance and their strength, but they have played football that lifted the soul and De Bruyne has been at the heart of that. Then last Tuesday, I went to Anfield to see Liverpool play Roma in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. It turned into one of the great nights in even the ri ch history of English clubs in European football. In t he midst of Li verpool’s breathtaking demolition of the Italians, the performance of Mo Salah was astonishing. I am usually wary of comparing any player to Lionel Messi because Messi is usually beyond compare, but the way Salah played a g a i n s t Ro ma invited those comparisons. He was untouchable.
The Roma defence could not get anywhere near him. They were as mesmerised by his pace and his close control as the supporters were. It was a privilege to watch Salah that night. It was an evening of thrilling football and the Egypt forward contributed two stunning goals and two assists that made it impossible for the scorers to miss. Roberto Firmino was a quite brilliant support act, as he has been for much of this season, but Salah was out of this world.
I t was the best individual performance for an English club I’ve seen in an important European game since Roy Keane inspired Manchester United’s comeback in the 1999 Champions League semifinal second leg against Juventus in the Stadio Delle Alpi.
Others will talk of George Best’s display for United against Benfica in t he Estadio da Luz in t he European Cup quarter- finals in 1966 — Kevin Keegan in t he 1977 European Cup final against Borussia Monchengladbach and Steven Gerrard during the Miracle of Istanbul.
There are more candidates, too, but Salah’s performance was up there with all of them. It wrote another glorious chapter in Liverpool’s rich European history and took them to the brink of another Champions League final.
When I cast my vote for Salah yesterday, it wasn’t because of just one night, although it helped to have been a witness to a magical evening. The truth is that Salah has become a phenomenon this season. He has become so prolific that it is almost funny.
I’ve seen him win games for his club on less glamorous occasions than Tuesday night. I saw him ram home the late winner for Liverpool at Crystal Palace last month that kept Jurgen Klopp’s side firmly on course for the top four and set them up for their stunning Champions League triumph over City.
Salah has not just done it on the big occasions. He has travelled the hard yards. He has been a team player.
For a player to eclipse Liverpool club marks held by strikers of the calibre of Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Robbie Fowler, Kenny Dalglish, John Aldridge and Luis Suarez shows what a special season he has had. Salah has 43 goals in all competitions this season now. Only Ian Rush, with 47 in 1983-84, stands between him and the all-time Liverpool record.
Add to all this the fact that it was Salah who, in October last year, scored the injury time penalty against Congo in Alexandria that took Egypt to the World Cup finals for the first time in nearly 30 years and it adds up to a season of personal achievement that has been utterly remarkable.
Choosing either De Bruyne and Salah is a fool’s errand as both have brought so much joy, but a vote is a vote and Salah gets mine.