Feuding Mohamed Salah Given Chance to Emulate Messi, Ronaldo, Pele With Award Nomination

Salah has been nominated for a prestigious individual award just as he’s in the midst of a stormy standoff with Arne Slot.

Mohamed Salah has been left to train on his own at Liverpool. / Lewis Storey/Getty Images

In a twist of inopportune timing, Mohamed Salah has been named on the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year while he finds himself in the eye of a controversy storm sparked by his own comments.

Liverpool’s talismanic forward was left out of Arne Slot’s Champions League squad for Tuesday’s clash with Inter in Milan after unleashing a seven-and-a-half-minute tirade against the Dutch boss and the club as a whole.

Salah lamented the lack of respect shown to him after being named as a substitute in three straight Premier League games and claimed that he no longer had a relationship with Slot. Liverpool’s manager responded firmly by leaving his star forward at home for the midweek European trip, insisting that while he is a “polite,” he is “not weak.”

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As he arrived at Liverpool’s empty training centre to conduct a solo session—and take some selfies—Salah will have learned that he is one of six global sports stars to have been nominated for recognition ahead of this month’s grand BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.

Alongside the feuding Liverpool forward, Arsenal Women midfielder Mariona Caldentey was nominated for her role in helping the Gunners win the Champions League and Spain’s run to the European Championship final last summer.

Pole vault phenom Armand Duplantis has also been given the chance to defend his World Sports Star title while U.S. athletics star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and baseball icon Shohei Ohtani were also given the nod.

Salah is not the only nominee dealing with controversy. U.S. boxer Terence Crawford was included in the list despite being stripped of the WBC super-middleweight belt after allegedly failing to pay his sanctioning fees.

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2025 BBC Sports World Sport Star of the Year Nominees

Athlete	Nation	Discipline
Mariona Caldentey	Spain	Football
Terence Crawford	United States	Boxing
Armand Duplantis	Sweden	Athletics
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone	United States	Athletics
Shohei Ohtani	Japan	Baseball
Mohamed Salah	Egypt	Football

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Salah Aiming to Replicate Messi, Ronaldo, Pele

Ronaldo (left) and Messi (right) last clashed on the international stage in 2014. / PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images

This mouthful of an award has been dished out since 1960, when the Australian middle-distance runner Herb Elliott became the first World Sport Star to ever be recognised at BBC Sports’ Personality of the Year ceremony.

Over the subsequent 65 years, there have only been six footballing winners. Caldentey would become the first female player to ever receive the gong, while Salah would be following in the footsteps of giants.

Portugal’s Eusébio was the first exponent of the beautiful game to ever collect the award after finishing as top scorer at the 1966 World Cup which was held on English soil.

Pelé, the great idol of Brazilian football, would receive the same honour after dazzling the globe at the 1970 World Cup, and his compatriot Ronaldo replicated that success 32 years later.

Cristiano Ronaldo (2014) and Lionel Messi (2022) both had their status as modern greats underscored by the World Sport Star prize while Erling Haaland was the last footballing winner, capping off a record-toppling debut campaign in the Premier League with the BBC Sports award.

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Every Footballer to Be Voted World Sports Star of the Year by BBC Sports

Player	Nation	Year
Eusébio	Portugal	1966
Pelé	Brazil	1970
Ronaldo	Brazil	2002
Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2014
Lionel Messi	Argentina	2022
Erling Haaland	Norway	2023

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