MO SALAH has been nominated for a prestigious BBC award just days after his public Liverpool spat.
The Egyptian superstar, 33, let rip at manager Arne Slot in the wake of his side’s 3-3 draw against Leeds.
Salah was left fuming after being dropped from Liverpool’s XI once again.
And he has now been axed entirely from tonight’s squad to face Inter Milan in the Champions League.
The row rumbled on last night as Jamie Carragher took aim at Salah, having been name-checked by the forward in his rant.
But despite Salah’s Anfield woes, he could now be set to scoop one of sport’s top individual prizes this month.
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The BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards takes place on December 18.
It sees the best British sportsperson crowned with the prestigious title.
However, there is also an award for foreign athletes.
And Salah is one of six huge names up for this year’s gong.
Revealing his nomination, a BBC statement read: “The ‘Egyptian King’ scored 29 Premier League goals and broke a host of records as he helped Liverpool to a record-equalling 20th top-flight title.
“He became the first player to win the Golden Boot, the Playmaker Award for most assists and the Premier League Player of the Season Award in the same campaign.
“He was also named as the PFA Men’s Player of the Year for a record third time and collected a third Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year award.
“The 33-year-old became the highest-scoring overseas player in Premier League history, overtaking Sergio Aguero’s mark of 184.”
Salah’s opponents for the gong include Spain footballer Mariona Caldentey, American boxer Terence Crawford, Swedish athlete Armand Duplantis, US athlete Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Japanese MLB star Shohei Ohtani.
But should he win the prize, Salah will not be present to collect it as he links up with Egypt teammates for AFCON three days earlier on December 15.
Salah’s shock blast is still reverberating around world football, with the veteran only signing a lucrative new contract in April.
After watching Liverpool concede a last-gasp equaliser to Leeds, he said: “I’m sitting on the bench for 90 minutes, I think that’s the third time I’m on the bench.
“I think it’s the first time in my career but I’m very disappointed. I’m very, very disappointed to be fair.
“I have done so much for this club, everybody can see that during the years and especially last season.
“Sitting on the bench, I don’t know why, it seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That’s how I feel it. I think it’s very clear that someone wants me to get all the blame.
“The club promised me in the summer for a lot of promises and nothing. So far, I’m on the bench three games.
“So I can’t say that they keep the promise. I said that many times before, I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship.
“I don’t know why. It seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.”
It saw manager Slot respond with surprise before leaving Salah out of his squad to face Inter Milan tonight.
The Dutchman said: “The only one who can answer is Mo himself. I can guess but it’s hard for me to tell who he means.
“We know he’s not travelling with us. That was the only communication from us to him.
“Mo had been respectful to the staff so it was a surprise to me when he gave those comments.
“I’m not sure if he was emotional or not but my reaction is clear. He is not with us tonight.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool icon Carragher also got involved after being targeted by Salah’s blast.
The Egyptian said in his rant: “I’m sorry, I know the club too well. I’ve been here many years.
“So tomorrow you’re going to find Carragher is going to go for me again, again, again. That’s fine.”
This saw Carragher respond on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football coverage of Man Utd’s 4-1 win over Wolves.
He said: “I thought it was a disgrace what he did after the game.
“Some people have painted it as an emotional outburst, I don’t think it was.
“I think whenever Mo Salah stops in the mixed zone, which he’s done four times in eight years at Liverpool, it’s choreographed between him and his agent to cause maximum damage and to strengthen his own position.”
On the timing of Salah’s comments, Carragher added: “He did that 12 months ago and I called him out on this show about it. He played on the heartstrings of the Liverpool supporters.
“Liverpool were top of the league and he’d scored the winning goal at Southampton. That was the time to come out and put pressure on the Liverpool ownership.
“So, for the rest of the season you have banners in the crowd saying ‘Give Mo his dough’.
“He’s chosen this weekend to do this now and he’s waited for a bad result, they’ve conceded a last minute goal.
“The Liverpool supporters, the manager, the whole club feels like it is in the gutter at the moment, and he’s chosen that time to go for the manager and maybe try and get him sacked.
“That’s the way I felt about it.”
Carragher was also deeply unimpressed by Salah’s claim of being “thrown under the bus”.
He fumed: “Thrown under the bus? He’s tried to throw the club under the bus twice over the last 12 months.
“With the manager right now, Salah should be doing as much as he can now to try and help the club get out of the worst run of results they’ve had since the 1950s, and he hasn’t done that.”
And referencing Salah’s lack of tracking back, Carragher added: “He’s a legendary figure and all those players get a privilege. Exactly the same one as Salah gets at Liverpool and that’s he doesn’t have to defend. he doesn’t have to chase back.
“That’s what he has at Liverpool but when we are talking about throwing people under the bus, he’s thrown the Liverpool right back under the bus for eight years. Imagine playing behind him for eight years.”
Carra then brutally added: “One thing I want to remind Salah and maybe his agent is that before he come to Liverpool, Salah was known as the guy who failed at Chelsea.
“That’s just a fact. He never won a major trophy before he came to Liverpool.”
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