ESPNUK made a post on Instagram recently asking their followers who had the better legacy in the English premier league between Man Utd’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah, and while it seems like a close race, there’s a clear winner among Salah vs Ronaldo debate.
What is legacy?
Legacy is a part of your history that you leave behind. Going by this definition, what Cristiano Ronaldo left behind while playing in the English Premier League is way better than Mo Salah’s.
There are two main angles of strength for Mo Salah in this debate. One is about his goal contribution while playing in the EPL, and the others is that he played in the EPL in his prime. On both counts, Salah indeed has the advantage over Cristiano Ronaldo.
But we are here to discuss the overall legacy of both players while playing in the most competitive league in the world.
But first, let’s make something clear. We wouldn’t be discussing their legacy in the EPL as an isolation because that would be pointless. If you are playing in a big team in EPL, you are also expected to compete in the FA Cup, League Cup, European Cups and the premier league. There’s no point in separating them when both players didn’t do that while playing in the EPL.
Selah vs Ronaldo Individual achievement in EPL
So we would be looking at how their legacy in the EPL in all competitions.
So let’s start with the their team achievement. While with Chelsea and Liverpool, Salah won a total of 9 trophies in 8 seasons. Cristiano Ronaldo also won 9 trophies in 7 seasons with Man Utd. However, I believe Mo Salah’s winning of the Premier League for Liverpool was probably worth more to his club because it was their first in their history compared to Cristiano’s three consecutive EPL trophies for Man Utd who had won it several times in the past.
On an individual level, Cristiano Ronaldo outshines Mo Salah on a world class scale. It’s true Mo Salah has two more golden boots than Cristiano Ronaldo, and he also broke his record for the most goals scored in a premier league season with his 32 goals in 2017/18 season (though has been broken by Erling Haaland), but if you look closely, Cristiano Ronaldo achieved more with his performance. Even though Mo Salah had won 3 premier league golden boots, he’s never won an European Golden Boot with any of them, unlike Cristiano Ronaldo who won 1 European Golden Boot along with his Premier League golden boot back in 2007/08 season.
That means Salah winning 3 golden boots is great, but it could be better if he won it alongside the European Golden Boot like Arsenal’s Henry and Man City’s Haaland did. That’s a better legacy because for Cristiano Ronaldo, there is no room to achieve more, while Salah’s achievement could use some improvement.
Mo Salah won one premier league player of the season, compared to Cristiano Ronaldo winning it twice. Mo Salah also won PFA Fan’s player of the season three times compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s twice.
They have both won PFA Player’s player of the season twice each. Cristiano Ronaldo of course also won PFA Young player of the season once, while Salah was never even nominated as a young player in Chelsea. Both players also won FWA Footballer of the year twice each. They also won Puskas Award for their efforts while playing in England.
While Mo Salah bagged 13 major individual awards in his prime, Cristiano Ronaldo also bagged 13 major awards with the help of his European Golden Boot in 2008. So it’s a tie.
We are not going to be considering the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year while playing in the English Premier League. But it’s totally valid. However, to keep the debate interesting, let set the bar in their stats a bit lower.
As a football fan, when you are talking about who has a better legacy playing in a certain league, you want to go with the players who have put the league on a world stage, or you are making your league the biggest joke in the world.
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One of the biggest advantage La Liga has over EPL is that players competing in the league are also the best on the world stage, not just domestically. This is where Cristiano Ronaldo’s legacy in the English Premier league outshines Salah’s by a million miles.
Apart from the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo hit the pinnacle of world football while playing in England which Salah has not come close to, there are some other world achievements Salah hasn’t tasted in his prime that Cristiano Ronaldo has.
The one that comes to mind is FIFAPro 11. Since 2005, 11 players have been selected from different leagues to be the best first eleven in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo has been named 3 times while playing in England and Salah has not been named at all, even in his prime. Players like Torres, Drogba, Henry, Kante, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, David De Dea, Hazard, Alisson, John Stones, Virgil van Dijk, Ruben Dias, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva etc have all been in the FIFAPRO 11 while playing in English Premier League, but Salah has not.
This is why Cristiano Ronaldo has a better legacy in the English Premier League than Salah. The only way Salah can win this debate is if we want to talk about their legacy as a local champion, not on the world stage.
As a local champion, Mo Salah barely takes the win mainly because he played in EPL in his prime compared to Ronaldo who did before his prime and after his prime. But when we talk about the better legacy all round, Cristiano Ronaldo takes the win.
It’s also important to know that Mo Salah was never the top scorer in the seasons he won both the Champions League and the EPL. But Cristiano Ronaldo did that in his 2007/08 season.
Let’s know what you think below about the Selah vs Ronaldo in the English Premier League debate.
