Bernardo Silva probably doesn't know what to make of it all. Mere days after the grumpy Portuguese failed miserably in attempting to convince he wasn't complaining about a perceived lack of acknowledgement for Manchester City's achievements, it was the turn of Liverpool supporters to take similar umbrage regarding their team.
Not quite to the same level of thinly-disguised contempt as Silva, admittedly. But eyebrows were undoubtedly raised when Mohamed Salah was overlooked for the final three of the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award for last season.
In the shortlist instead are Real Madrid duo Thibaut Courtois and Karim Benzema, along with City talisman Kevin De Bruyne. The inclusion of the Real duo is little surprise given their importance on the road to winning La Liga and the Champions League, while De Bruyne was hugely impressive for the Premier League champions.
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Not sufficiently enough, though, for the Belgian to beat Salah to both the PFA Player of the Year and Footballer of the Year awards, recognition for a season in which the Egyptian shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Son Heung-Min and provided the most assists in the top flight. Indeed, the only key performance metric in which De Bruyne bettered Salah in the main two competitions last term was by providing one more assist than the Liverpool man in the Champions League.
But that Salah struggled to hit consistent heights following his return from Africa Cup of Nations disappointment perhaps played in the minds of the voting coaches and journalists who opted to ignore his claims and that of departed Sadio Mane, whose Senegal downed Egypt in the final and then beat them in a World Cup qualifying play-off.
Salah polled only seventh, behind sixth-placed Mane and both Robert Lewandowski in fourth and Luka Modric in fifth. Three other Liverpool players made the list - Virgil van Dijk (10th), Trent Alexander-Arnold (14th) and Fabinho (15th).
While team honours are the overwhelming priority, Salah has made no secret of the importance of individual accolades in the past. When bizarrely placed again in seventh for last year's Ballon d'Or, he said: "It's true that I was shocked by my ranking in 2021. For this year, the defeat against Real Madrid is a disadvantage, even if I played a good game in the final. But it doesn't cancel out everything I've achieved for months. Let's wait for the vote. And if I'm not Ballon d'Or in 2022, I'll do everything I can to be the next one."
Salah won't have long to wait. Having historically been awarded over the period of a calendar year, the Ballon d'Or has now switched to judge performances by season. The winner will be announced on October 17.
With Egypt not at the World Cup in Qatar, it would realistically take a Herculean effort for the forward to push himself into the frame in the immediate future. And at 30, such openings are likely to become increasingly scarce.
That, though, won't stop him performing. "Mo is in a really good moment," said Jurgen Klopp on Friday, having seen the Egyptian involved in all five goals scored by Liverpool this season, netting twice. Having ended speculation over his future by penning a new deal and been re-energised by a break during the summer, Salah is now back near his devastating best.
Certainly, nobody would be surprised if Salah is again riding high in the goals and assist charts this season as a key part of any potential Liverpool success. Even Bernardo Silva couldn't complain about that.
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