Real Madrid star Eden Hazard says a Liverpool player should win the Ballon d’Or this year, and has earmarked Sadio Mane for the prize.
The former Chelsea flyer thinks someone playing for the European champions should win the most illustrious personal award in football.
Hazard has tipped Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah for the Ballon d’Or, and thinks the Senegalese star has done enough to be name the best player in the world.
“I’ll give it to a Liverpool player,” he told Le Parisien. “Mane, Salah or van Dijk deserve it. If Sadio had won the African Cup of Nations with Senegal, there would have been no debate.
“It would be nice if he had it. Or Momo, who is a friend of mine. It would be good for African football and for English football.”
It’s refreshing to hear a player who we can consider as a former rival speaking so openly bout how boss Liverpool players are.
I’m not so sure Mane will in the award, but I’m not sure what else he could have done to win it. If he had won the AFCON then there’s that, and the same can be said of van Dijk at the Nation’s League.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are, of course, in the conversation for the Ballon d’Or, but – obviously – I really hope one of the Reds can do it.