Mo Salah admits he was "shocked" to have finished seventh in the Ballon d'Or rankings having been touted as a possible winner.
The Golden Ball was handed out in November and, once again, was claimed by Lionel Messi, who now has seven.
Robert Lewandowski proved to be his closest competition with many feeling as if the Pole deserved the individual gong.
However, such was his sensational form for Liverpool, Salah was seen as something of an outside bet.
Salah was scoring more than a goal per game, with some of his sensational strikes underlining his quality.
Despite that the Egyptian never threatened and ended up finishing below the likes of Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Karim Benzema.
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Liverpool's No.11 has confessed there is nothing he can do about the result despite evidently taking issue with it.
"It shocked me [not doing better in Ballon d'Or voting], but there's nothing I can say. No one in the world expected that I would be seventh, but that's what happened," Salah said on Egyptian TV and the DMC channel.
Salah's efforts were also not good enough to see him named in the latest edition of FIFA's World XI.
The 29-year-old didn't even make the original 23-man shortlist with Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland, Lewandowski and Messi the forward players eventually picked in the final team.
The Liverpool star refused to get drawn in to any 'conspiracy' ideas but did feel as if some of the choices were incorrect.
He claimed: "I do not feel the conspiracy theory, but there may be inaccurate choices, and there are many countries which aren't popular with football knowledge and so far from it.
"I do not know their choices based on what, but I do not believe in the conspiracy theory.
"I don't have the feeling that there is anything personal against me specifically in the FIFA choices, but this is the reality we are dealing with."
Salah's Liverpool teammates Alisson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were included on the shortlist, but didn't make the final XI.
Several pundits, whose focus is on the Premier League, have hailed the Egyptian as the best player in the world since the start of the season.
Jamie Carragher said several months ago on Sky Sports: "I don’t think there’s anyone better in the world at this moment or in European football, I really don't.
"I’ve seen the Champions League, his record over the last few weeks has been outstanding.
"You can never question him too much for what he’s done at Liverpool. But right now is about as sharp as I’ve ever seen him."
