Surjit Patowary

He Displays His FIFA Cards Next to His Champions League Trophy. That Is Who Mohamed Salah Is.

Champions League, Liverpool, Milos Kerkez, Mohamed Salah, Premier League

The Kerkez and Salah bond has been one of the nicest subplots of Liverpool’s season.

The former Bournemouth star visited Mohamed Salah’s house during Liverpool’s midweek break after their 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest.

Kerkez posted an Instagram dump from the visit and one photo showed Salah’s trophy cabinet in the background. Here’s how the photo of Salah’s trophy cabinet intrigued the masses –

The Champions League Trophy

The first thing fans asked was how Salah has a Champions League trophy sitting at home. It is almost certainly a replica, which is completely normal for players.

John Terry has a trophy room full of replica Premier League titles, FA Cups and League Cups from his Chelsea days.

Salah won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019, beating Tottenham in Madrid. He scored from the penalty spot in the second minute, which is the second fastest goal ever in a final.

After being taken off injured by Ramos in the 2018 final, scoring in 2019 meant everything to him. Of course he has it on his shelf.

Where Are the Other Trophies

The cabinet in the photo is clearly only showing part of Salah’s collection.

He has won the Premier League twice, in 2020 and 2025. He has also won an FA Cup, three League Cups, the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup, and a Swiss Super League title with Basel back in 2013.

Fans are right that what Kerkez photographed is probably only a third of the full haul. The rest must be somewhere else in the house.

The Man of the Match Numbers

What really got people talking was the number of cylindrical Premier League Man of the Match awards visible in the cabinet.

Salah won 25 of them in the 2024/25 season alone, which is almost two thirds of all the matches played that year.

Over his entire Liverpool career the number is genuinely staggering.

People focus on his Golden Boots and goal tallies but the Man of the Match count is the most honest proof of how consistently dominant he has been in individual games.

Kerkez Was Sending a Message

The timing of this post matters a lot. Pat Nevin said on the BBC that a plastic bag drifting across the pitch had more impact than Salah did against Forest.

Salah was subbed off in the 77th minute having had zero shots. He was seen laughing on the bench afterwards and that drew criticism from Jamie Carragher too.

Salah has also gone nine consecutive Premier League games without scoring as of this week.

Sam Allardyce and Wayne Rooney have both piled on with negative comments.

Kerkez posting a photo of that trophy cabinet in the middle of all this is a pretty clear statement. It is a teammate reminding people to look at the full picture.

The FIFA Cards

Salah also has his large-format FIFA Ultimate Team cards displayed in the cabinet alongside his actual trophies.

He has had 97 cards in the game’s history, with a highest-rated card of 99. He got his first proper Team of the Year card in EA FC 25, rated 96, after his brilliant 2024/25 season.

Displaying them at home shows an awareness of his place in the wider culture of football, not just the sport itself.

The Missing Ballon d’Or

The one thing missing from that cabinet is a Ballon d’Or. Salah finished fourth in the 2025 ceremony behind Dembele, Yamal and Vitinha.

It was his sixth nomination and his best ever finish. He had scored 34 goals and 23 assists that season and won the Premier League, three PFA Player of the Year awards, and the Football Writers’ award.

But Liverpool got knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16 by PSG, and Dembele won everything with PSG that year.

The Ballon d’Or essentially rewards Champions League success above all else, and Salah’s team was on the wrong end of that. Only four journalists even put him first in their vote.

Eleven did not include him in their top ten at all. It genuinely should be on that shelf. It just is not.

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