Egypt international and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has made IFFHS Men’s CAF Team of the Year for 2021 alongside Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane and left-back Ali Maaloul.
Salah has been in remarkable form since the start of the season with Liverpool, scoring 22 goals and making eight assists in 24 appearances across all competitions.
This form is an illustration of the Egyptian’s career with the Reds so far. Since joining them in 2017, Salah made 227 appearances in which he scored 147 goals, making him the club’s tenth highest all-time goalscorer.
Despite his achievements in the last year, Salah still finished only seventh in the Ballon d’Or rankings, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Jorginho, and also failed to make the shortlist for the 2021 FIFPRO World 11.
Meanwhile, Salah still managed to win the Golden Foot award and was named Men’s Best Player in the IFFHS CAF awards for the year 2021.
And now as expected, the Egyptian made the starting XI for IFFHS Men’s CAF Team of the Year for 2021 alongside the likes of Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City, Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly, and Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy.
While Salah was the only Egyptian in the squad, he wasn’t the only representative of Egyptian football as the starting XI also saw the inclusion of Al Ahly star Ali Maaloul.
An integral part of Al Ahly squad, Maaloul enjoyed a spectacular year with the Reds, helping them win their second CAF Champions League in less than a year as well as lifting two CAF Super Cups.
On the international level, Maaloul helped Tunisia reach the final stage of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers and the final of the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, in which they lost to Algeria.
Another representative of Al Ahly who made the team was South African head coach Pitso Mosimane, who under his guidance Al Ahly won six awards in just over a year.
Mosimane had been named IFFHS’s Best Club Coach in the CAF area for 2021, but it wasn’t easy for him to make the Team of the Year, especially as Algeria manager Djamel Belmadi had clinched the Best National Coach award.
