Thierry Henry has overlooked Mohammed Salah as his leading candidate for the Ballon d'Or, with a Laliga star told as his favorite for the prize.
Salah is considered a leading competition for the annual prize after a stunning campaign so far with Liverpool.
The Egyptian attacker enjoys the best personal season of his career with 32 goals and has delivered 22 assists in all competitions for the Reds.
The stunning form of Salah has helped Liverpool to make a 15 -point lead compared to the best challengers Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table.
The 32-year-old is seven free from Erling Haaland in the race for the Premier League Golden Boot who has beaten 27 times, while he is three shy by the 20-record of 20 held together by Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.
Henry, however, has suggested that Salah is currently behind a former Premier League wing player in his list of candidates for the prize.
The former Arsenal and Barcelona Vooruit believes that Raphinha has currently gone for Salah in the race.
Raphinha, who came to Barcelona in 2022, scored 27 times and has given 19 assists for the Catalan giants this season.
The Brazilian attacker is the top scorer in this season's Champions League with 11 goals, while Salah struck three times in the competition.
Henry emphasized Raphinha's success in Europe, where Barcelona improved the quarterfinals, while he also noticed that the goals of Salah and Harry Kane were stimulated by taking punishments.
Although Raphinha has only scored one penalty this season in all competitions, Salah scored 11 times from the place.
“Raphinha is now in front of me, he is ahead because of what he does in the Champions League,” Henry said on CBS Sports.
“He has 11 goals in the Champions League. Mo Salah is a great candidate for it, Kane is a competition and [Ousmane] Dembele.
'It depends on whether your performance in the Champions League, on top of winning your competition. Raphinha has many goals and with only one penalty.
'I am not saying that Kane and Salah should not have punishments, Mo Salah has a season in the Premier League that we will never see again.
'I say that if a man has almost the same number of goals as you scored, without fines, I will not say that that is bad what you did – it's great – but this guy I have to talk a little more about him.
'Raphinha, when people talk about complete as a striker, you also need to know about exerting pressure and defending and helping your full back. And he has it all. '
While Salah and Liverpool ran a last-16 exit on Tuesday evening with PSG to PSG, Raphinha hit twice to help Barcelona with Benfica to grab 4-1 to reach the last eight.
Barcelona is now waiting for the winners of the Last-16-Easy game between Borussia Dortmund and Lille.
Salah will help Liverpool bounce back from their Champions League elimination when the Reds opposite Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final are confronted on Sunday.
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