Since 2008, only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have won the most prestigious individual football award, Ballon D’Or. But it may change already this year, as Mohamed Salah has played a fantastic season at Liverpool, and now hopes to play a successful World Cup with Egypt.

Premier League top scorer

In club football, Salah has already proven that he belongs to the absolute top. With 32 goals in 36 matches, the 26-year-old striker has become a top scorer of the 2017/18 English Premier League season, and his impact greatly helped Liverpool to reach the Champions League final.

However, performance at the World Cup may be crucial for determining the Ballon D’Or winner. The trophy will most definitely go to Salah if Egypt win the tournament in Russia, but this scenario is hardly realistic. But even if the African team reach, say, the quarter-final, or Mohamed becomes the top scorer of the competition, his chance to win the individual award will dramatically increase.

After Salah injured his shoulder in the Champions League final against Real Madrid, there were fears that he would miss the World Cup. However, the forward made the World Cup squad, and there are hardly doubts that he will play in Russia - even is his participation in the Egypt’s opening game against Uruguay is in question.

Back after 28 years

Previously, Egypt have participated in only two World Cups, in 1934 and 1990, and never won a single match. After 1990, the Pharaohs enjoyed some great results on their continent, winning Africa Cup of Nations in 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010. Yet each of their attempts to reach the World Cup finals again ended in failure, and earlier this decade, the turmoil in the country after the Arab Spring seemed to only postpone the expectations. However, the situation changed for the better in the recent years when Salah rose to prominence.

Last year, Egypt topped their qualifying group ahead of Uganda, Ghana and Congo, and Liverpool striker was the team’s best scorer with five goals. Mohamed’s brace in the home game against Congo played a particularly important role - actually, his winner late in the match secured team’s promotion to the final stage.

Salah was not even born when the Pharaohs played their last World Cup, and he is used to watching the tournament on TV, yet he obviously hopes for a successful campaign in Russia. The group with the host team Russia, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia does not look easy on paper, but the Egyptians hope that their team will go through.

Of course Egypt are not just Salah. The head coach Hector Cuper, who took charge in 2015, realises that it may be a suicide to employ the attacking style against the best teams of world. So the Argentinian heavily relies on his back line, even if it does not contain such big names as Salah. In fact, Cuper prefers defensive-minded style of football, which is not always popular with fans, but ultimately brings results.


El-Hadary set to break record

Not only Salah, but some other key footballers of the Pharaohs play their club football in England, such as Arsenal’s defensive midfielder Mohamed Elneny or Aston Villa’s winger Ahmed Elmohamady. At the same time, the goalkeeper and captain Essam El-Hadary is based in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Taawoun. The 45-year-old has a good chance to become the oldest player ever at the World Cup - now this record belongs to the Colombian Farid Mondragon who was 43 when he featured at the 2014 tournament in Brazil. El-Hadary made his debut in the Pharaohs in 1996, when Salah was just 4, and some of their teammates were not even born. The veteran is not widely known in the football world as he has played most of his career in the Egyptian league and spent just one season in Europe, at Switzerland’s Sion. However, El-Hadary has won plenty of trophies during his career, and the goalkeeper claims that participating in the World Cup is the only thing he is missing before he can retire.

But even such a colorful figure and a potential record-breaker like El-Hadari is likely to be overshadowed by Salah, who is worshipped by Egyptian fans. Defence is important for success, but somebody needs to score goals, and Mohamed is widely expected to do it for his country in Russia.