Have Liverpool ever had the world’s best player in their ranks? Legendary Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard might have been able to lay claim to it at some stage during his storybook career at Anfield but the game’s biggest individual gongs were often scooped by attackers like Ronaldinho and Kaka during that time frame.

Luis Suarez may point to his 2013/14 heroics as evidence but Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominated the Ballon d’Or scene during the mid 2010s and beyond.

There is perhaps no more iconic figure in club history than the great Sir Kenny Dalglish, but even his enduring excellence never really earned worldwide recognition during a different, more insular time for the global game in the late 1970s and 80s.

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Michael Owen’s Ballon d’Or win of 2001 was achieved when the famous bauble was given out to celebrate the finest player in Europe as opposed to the world and for all the good, the great and the genius who have come and gone at Anfield, there have always been other, more glamorous players across the sport who have been perceived as bigger and brighter stars than those who have succeeded on Merseyside.

Right now, though, there are surely few arguments against Mohamed Salah being the planet’s preeminent footballer. Twenty goals before the New Year has been ushered in is a statistic that is supported by his 17 assists, the most sublime of which came in his latest masterclass against West Ham United on Sunday for Diogo Jota.

In the Premier League itself - the competition widely regarded the strongest on the continent - Liverpool’s top scorer has 17 goals and 13 assists from 18 appearances and all for a team who lead the division by eight points. Arne Slot’s side, as it happens, also sit at the summit of the revamped, 32-team Champions League too.

For context, Salah’s 37 goal contributions at this stage of the campaign is the same managed last year by Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior, who - along with his employers - went into an embarrassing meltdown when he was snubbed in favour of Manchester City’s Rodri for the most recent Ballon d’Or.

In that sort of context, there aren’t many more cases to be made against anointing Salah as the world’s No.1 just now, even if form is always the mercy of fluctuations and there is no officially defined line in the sand from where such debates can start.

“Mo's just Mo,” says Harvey Elliott. “He finds a new level each and every season when everyone's trying to write him off he comes back and shows the world what he can do.

“Us players that play around him, we see every day in training how hard he works. For me he's one of the best players in the world if not the best at this moment in time.

“We just hope we can keep him around for a little bit longer and he keeps performing the way he is. I don't have a clue how. I think if we knew we'd all be the same.

“He's just an amazing athlete, an amazing footballer and an amazing guy. It's hard to put your finger on it. If we could we'd all look like him. He must have his secrets.”

Salah signed off from 2024 with a stunning display at West Ham as the Reds won 5-0 on Sunday and it means his calendar year ends with the most goal involvements of any player across Europe's top-five leagues in all competitions with 53.

That figure, in fact, is only the second time in the Premier League era a player has reached 50-plus goal involvements in a single year, with Salah's haul in 2018 now equalled by this season's leading Premier League marksman.

"I think it's really important that they do everything they can to keep him for another couple of years," former Reds midfielder Danny Murphy tells MyBettingSites. "He looks fit, he lives a good life. I don't see a drop off physically if he stays. He wants to break records.

"For me, from all the conversations and interviews I've seen him in, it feels like he wants to stay. Yes there should be a succession plan of course. The recruitment team at any big club should always be looking forward to who might be next, to fill those shoes.

"The only reason I would say not to sign him is if his demands are so ridiculous and so high that it's unrealistic and goes against the club's philosophy and then causes problems with other players' negotiations.

"I've got a good feeling that it'll be sorted out. All the noises are good. The impact he has on the team, the fans love, the role model he is to other players at the club. It just seems silly to not find a resolution unless it's ridiculously unrealistic. I think it'll get done."

The man himself might be too humble enough to agree outright but there hasn't been a more outstanding candidate at the halfway mark across global football.

For Salah to become the first Ballon d'Or winner at Anfield in its current guise, however, the Egyptian must replicate what he has done so far in the second half of the campaign and inspire the Reds to the game's most major honours.