Salah’s our golden boy

MOHAMED SALAH deserves to be ranked alongside Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the world’s best players after he ran riot against Roma.

That’s the view of Liverpool team-mate Dejan Lovren, who has backed his team-mate to challenge the pair for the Ballon d’Or this year.

Barcelona star Messi and Real Madrid ace Ronaldo have dominated the award for a decade, with five wins each.

But Lovren said: “I don’t know if this is the right time to put pressure on him, but I believe he should be regarded as one of the best three in the world. He deserves to be mentioned for the Ballon d’Or.

“When people talk about Messi and Ronaldo they should also talk about Salah.

“He deserves credit but I think he deserves even more.”

Roma have claimed they had to sell Salah to Liverpool to stop them being booted out of the Champions League. The Italians feared Financial Fair Play punishment so flogged their star man in a deal they claim could rise to £43m.

Roma director of football Monchi said: “We had a need to sell. We had no option but to sell Salah before June 30.

“Had we not done that, we probably wouldn’t be playing the semi-final of the Champions League as we had UEFA monitoring us. We didn’t want to sell him, but had no choice.” Two late goals have given the Italians hope of a fightback in next Wednesday’s second leg.

They came from 4-1 down against Barcelona to beat the Spanish giants 3-0 at home, but Lovren has no fears Liverpool will blow their lead in the same way.

He said: “We had so many chances, they are really open, they are a team that likes to play and that is good for us. We know what we need to do.”