Mohamed Salah- the Egyptian Messi. After being signed by Liverpool from Roma this summer for a club-record 42 million euros, the left-footed winger has been on a mission to dominate, scoring 40 goals in 45 games for the Reds, along with laying on 13 assists. He is leading the Premier League in goals, and has four more games to score five goals to break the record for most goals in a Premier League season. He is joint-second in the goal scoring charts in the champions league, with 8 goals. He has led Liverpool to second place in the PL table, and also taken them to the Champions League semifinals, and look favorites to beat Roma and go to the Final in Kiev. But the question is: should he win the Ballon D’or?

Now, let’s be honest- the two main competitors for the yearly award for the World’s Best Player are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, just like every other year. But both of those men have played in La Liga for many years, and are used to the Spanish teams. Also, many defenses in the Santander are not as strong as those in the Premier League, and the supporting cast and spending power of Barcelona and Real Madrid tower over that of Liverpool’s. Barca and Real’s teams have won all of the past four Champions League titles and 26 of the past top-three finished in the La Liga since 2004-05. Liverpool has never won the Premier League in the modern era, and the last time they were in the Champions League was in 2015. But now, Messi is leading his team into first into the La Liga, Ronaldo has his team looking as potentially the first three-peat champions in CL history, and Salah has Liverpool in the Final Four of the CL for the first time since 2008 and third in the PL, only three points behind Manchester United for second.

This season, Messi leads the La Liga with 29 goals, and also has the most assists in Spain with 12, all while taking Barcelona to a champions league quarterfinals knockout (a poor showing) and an undefeated season in the league, with a league title and Copa del Rey double imminent for Messi’s Blaugrana. Ronaldo finds himself second in the goalscoring charts with 24 in La Liga for Real Madrid, and along with 15 goals in the Champions League, which leads the competition, has taken Real Madrid to a Champions League semifinal date with Bayern Munich and third in the La Liga. Messi has accumulated a total of 49 goals and assists over the season, Ronaldo has 47 combined goals and assists, and Salah has 50.

In summation, the ‘Egyptian Messi’ has a strong case to win the award. However, voting is very biased, and people love to vote for familiar names, and Messi and Ronaldo have won all of the past ten Ballon D’ors. So however he may be in with a fighting chance due to his insane season, it will still be an uphill battle for him to beat the Portuguese and Argentine stars. The award may even be decided by World Cup performance, which would make Messi the potential frontrunner (his nation, Argentina, are popular picks to win the whole thing).

So maybe, or maybe not. But he’s certainly in with a shot.