Demba Ba is an old enemy of Liverpool for reasons we don’t need to go into, but we quite like his latest comments on Sadio Mane’s Ballon d’Or bid!
The former Newcastle and Chelsea striker has lauded his Senegalese countryman and claimed Mane should have won the Ballon d’Or for 2019 ahead of Lionel Messi – despite the Argentine’s superior goalscoring numbers.
Interestingly, he says that everyone knows Messi is the best player on the planet, but that Mane’s achievements last calendar year should have seen him named the world’s leading footballer.
“I always said if you swap Mane’s stats in 2019 with Messi’s, Messi still would have won it, even with fewer goals,” Ba began, cited in the Echo.
“The fact that Mane won the Champions League, the Super Cup, he played an unbelievable season and finished joint top goal-scorer in the Premier League, it’s crazy!
“Not only that, he was decisive in all of the games. I believe he could’ve won it.