Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah backed to beat Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to huge award

The award has been won by either Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi for the last 10 years.

But Kewell believes if Salah has a good World Cup with Egypt, he could pip the Real Madrid and Barcelona superstars.

“Salah has had a phenomenal season,” Kewell told talkSPORT.

“People are saying about Player of the Year, but I’d even go that next step.

“If he was to have a fantastic World Cup, gets a couple of goals and plays well, and then continues again next season, why not go for the Ballon d’Or?

“He’s got the goals, I don’t see why he couldn’t win it.”

Salah has scored 36 goals in all competitions in his debut season for Liverpool since arriving from Roma last summer.

The forward has been compared with Messi in recent weeks and Kewell can see where people are coming from.

“He has this amazing dribbling ability, and defenders are scared of it,” Kewell added.

“It’s a part of the game that players believe they can do, but when you get someone who can actually dribble, obviously the best is Lionel Messi, who can run at defenders and be able to chop and change on a dime, and Salah can do this, you just can’t stop it.

“That’s the key with Salah – he drives at people, he’s chopping, turning, dribbling and people just don’t know how to deal with him.”