Mohamed Salah omitted from Ballon d’Or shortlist for second time

Mohamed Salah has been left out of the 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlist, dealing another blow to the former Liverpool forward’s hopes of winning football’s most prestigious individual award.

France Football, in partnership with UEFA, announced the full list of nominees on Tuesday, with Salah’s omission widely expected after a below-par season by his usual standards.

The Egypt international, now playing for Turkish club Trabzonspor, failed to win a team trophy with Liverpool last season and his individual statistics were also significantly weaker than in the previous campaign.

Salah made 41 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions and scored 12 goals, including seven in the Premier League. That represented a marked decline from the season before, when he scored 34 goals in 52 matches across all competitions.

His performances for Egypt at the 2026 World Cup were not enough to secure a place among the nominees either. Salah helped his country reach the last 16 for the first time in the history of the Pharaohs, but his personal contribution was limited.

The 34-year-old scored once and provided two assists in five appearances at the tournament, which was held during the summer.

This is only the second time Salah has missed out on the Ballon d’Or shortlist. He was also absent from the 2024 nominations, when the award was won by Spain midfielder Rodri.

Salah has otherwise been nominated on six occasions, all during his time at Liverpool. His most recent nomination came in 2025, when he finished fourth after playing a leading role in Liverpool’s Premier League title success. Ousmane Dembele won that year’s award.

The forward was first shortlisted in 2018, after his first season with Liverpool, and finished sixth. He was nominated again in 2019 following Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League triumph, ending that voting process in fifth place.

The award was cancelled in 2020, the year Salah won the Premier League for the first time in his career. He returned to the shortlist in 2021 and finished seventh.

Salah was nominated again in 2022, when he placed fifth, before dropping to 11th in 2023 the lowest position he has occupied among the nominees.

His prospects of returning to contention now appear increasingly limited. Salah is further into his career, while Trabzonspor are not competing for major honours either in the Turkish league or in Europe’s leading competitions.

However, he has come close to winning the Ballon d’Or on several occasions. His strongest recent opportunity came last year, when he was a key figure in Liverpool’s return to the Premier League summit and one of the outstanding players in their title-winning campaign.

Salah had been viewed as the leading Arab player capable of becoming the first to win the Ballon d’Or. Circumstances during his career, though, have prevented him from achieving that ambition, and the prospect now appears distant in theory.

The Egyptian has won the African Ballon d’Or twice, in 2017 and 2018.

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