Wednesday 25 April 2018 13:29, UK
Mohamed Salah has been backed into joint-favourite with Sky Bet to win the 2018 Ballon d'Or after another outstanding display in Liverpool's Champions League semi-final first leg against Roma on Tuesday.
The Egyptian fired Liverpool into a commanding position over Roma with a first-half double before setting up another two goals in the 5-2 victory.
Salah has now scored 43 goals in 47 games this season, with 20 of those coming in 18 appearances since the turn of the year, seeing him surge towards the Premier League Golden Boot and capture the PFA Player of the Year award in the process.
His latest impressive performance has prompted punters to back the 25-year-old into 7/4 joint-favourite for the Ballon d'Or alongside five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, with Lionel Messi following at 7/2.
Sky Bet report that the winger was not even included when they priced up the market at the start of the year and was added at 25/1 in March, with doubts over Liverpool and Eygpt's chances of claiming silverware.
Jurgen Klopp's side are now 11/8 favourites to win the Champions League, but Eygpt are still 200/1 outsiders to win the World Cup, seeing Salah considered a 50/1 shot for the Golden Boot.
However, he has already defied odds of 40/1 to win the PFA award and was 66/1 to be Premier League top goalscorer following his summer move from Roma.
Ian Wright talked up Salah's chances of winning the game's top individual award on The Debate after Tuesday's triumph, saying "Salah is in that conversation, of course he is".
Wright added: "With the World Cup coming in, the form he is you'd like to think he'll keep that for the World Cup. Obviously depending on what Liverpool do in the Champions League, if they do go on and win it, then you have to say when you look at Cristiano Ronaldo, he's saved much of his best work for the Champions League.
"He's [Ronaldo] won the Ballon d'Or a couple of times, and not just for those reasons but if Mo Salah keeps on doing what he's doing, he's not only in the conversation, he's got a very good chance of winning it."
