Lothar Matthaus has pointed to Jorginho over Liverpool’s Mo Salah as the more ‘convincing’ of two potential contenders for the Ballon d’Or award.
The 60-year-old claimed that the midfielder had enjoyed a superior year abroad in the Champions League and in the European Championship with Italy.
“What Klopp’s superstar Salah has been delivering for a few months is of course absolutely world-class,” the World Cup-winner told Sky (via Football365).
“It is quite possible that this will help him a lot in his choice of world footballer. But that was not the case for the whole year. In the spring, he and Liverpool had serious problems.
“Candidate Jorginho from Chelsea has been convincing for almost the entire last season and played a key role in winning the Champions League and the European Championship with Italy.
“He’s not as spectacular as Lewandowski, whom I personally keep my fingers crossed for the most. This time, however, he lacks the international title.
“Messi won the Copa America with Argentina, but achieved nothing great with Barcelona.”
The former Roma hitman has been the subject of significant of praise for his performances of late, with numerous comparisons made to leading talents Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
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To give credit where credit’s due, Jorginho did enjoy something of a successful year as far as silverware is concerned.
However, to discredit our No.11 purely on the basis of the prior campaign – in which the Egyptian was arguably strongly responsible for helping keep us in contention for top four football – seems a little unfair, to say the least.
On top of that, it arguably could not be clearer that, on current form, Salah is the globe’s leading talent, having amassed a remarkable 20 goal contributions in 12 games (across all competitions).