Beyond the Dominance of Ancient Egypt: Mohammed Salah’s 2025 Ballon d’Or Rankings

Beyond the Dominance of Ancient Egypt: Mohammed Salah’s 2025 Ballon d’Or Rankings

It was a historical sham of unanticipated aftermaths: Ancient Egypt never ruled the world, nor was it the earliest civilization. Despite its indelible imprints on the annals of civilization, the empire was rather idealized—far beyond Shakespeare’s description of his friend’s beauty in Sonnet 18.

In an era where empires spanned across continents, the Egyptian empire, at its apogee (New Kingdom 1570-1069 BC) barely overtopped the coasts of the River Nile. And when it did, it lazily ran a mere few kilometres into each of the four cardinal points.

While Egypt was some centuries distant, the Mesopotamian region had arrived civilization circa 4000-3500 BC. The overlong distance was such that by the time Egypt ascended the hills of civilization, the Fertile Crescent had fluttered into space and the Cuneiform writing system had been developed. 

Amidst the flawed, blustering, seas of romanticised Egyptian history, however, an island of facts was unperturbed: Egypt made significant contributions in irrigation, mathematics, glass technology, medicine, construction techniques and the writing system that evolved into what we have today. 

Many a historian, when queried on anything Egypt, would without hesitation, amplify the feats of the Egypt fronted by Memphis and Alexandria (Ancient Egypt) at the expense of the one fronted by Cairo (modern Egypt), forgetting the exploits of the prodigious Egyptian history student, who, in an era of mistold history, discovered the true shortcomings of Ancient Egypt and embarked on a lone conquest of the world ever since.

I think of Mo’ Salah as more than just a footballer; along with playing football, he juggles the roles of a historian and a monarch, whose knowledge of history set the tone for his conquest of ancient empires, and by extension, his conquest of the world. Like Alexander the Great, whose ingenuity inspired Macedonia’s invasion of Egypt and other territories, the Egyptian King developed a surreptitious strategy to guide his European invasion.

From Al-Mokawloon in Egypt, he gained access to European territory through Basel in Northwestern Switzerland.  A year later, in a battle for dominance on the European stage, Salah, with two goals in two games, led Basel to a two-legged win over Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League group stage. His performance in both games attracted interest from the capital of the British Empire. Though his stint in Switzerland was marked by thinly distributed goals, his invasion strategy was clear: he saved two goals for the two big games against Chelsea to attract their interest and managed seven in the remaining forty.

While Mo’ Salah besieged the English capital the following season, he understood it wasn’t time for conquest. To conquer the world, he needed to invade Rome. As undeniable as his talent was, he underperformed in England and had to be temporarily shipped off the British Isles to Florence Italy, and to Rome, a year later.

Rome was Salah’s route to greatness. His study of history, which was made explicit in the course charted by his football career, must have revealed the Roman Empire as the longest-reigning empire over Ancient Egypt, ruling for about 700 years. And to conquer the world, he must, first, conquer his greatest enemy. In Rome, he handled his task with an unrivalled flair that saw him hit a career-high 14 goals in his first season. In no time, his 31 prayers before each AS Roma game were answered at once: the club signed him on a permanent deal from Chelsea. That season, while pushing Roma to a second-place finish with 28 goal contributions, he colonized Rome in such a brutal fashion that they couldn’t condone his menace for another year.

With his conquest of Rome, the Egyptian king had performed his historical rites; and by returning to England, he was ready to take the world by storm. His approach, merciless and desperate. On his left foot was a missile launcher that saw records lose their lives at the sight of him. With 58 goal contributions in the first season of his return, cities within the British empire trembled at his name and nations all over the world fled at the sound of his voice. 

Continuing his wonders, he went on to win all domestic and international trophies with Liverpool and made over 35 goal contributions in eight consecutive seasons. With his feet, Egypt features another world wonder—one more sight-worthy than the Great Pyramids. Sounds exaggerated? While the Great Pyramids has circa 14 million annual visitors, Liverpool—with Mo Salah being the talisman— became the most-watched Premier League team last season, with a cumulative audience of 471 million. This season? They’re on their way to outstripping that, with over 130 million viewers across the first nine games from August to October.

Upon his conquest of England–the last and greatest of all empires, the world has become his field of play. Having a goal tally that has wearied commentators from endless chants of his name, Salah has done what Ancient Egypt deemed impossible. Ruling the world from his Egyptian throne, his name nests atop the latest Ballon d’Or power rankings— a list that contains emissaries from different countries of the world. An EPL gift from Liverpool coupled with an invincible journey to Munich in May is all it will take for Mo Salah to unseat George Weah —not with another election, as Salah is a monarch—as the latest African to win the Ballon d’Or award.

For fear of invasion, Ancient Egypt didn’t enlarge its territory; it invaded its neighbours to strengthen its territory against invaders. Yet, they suffered myriad invasions from the Hyksos, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Achaemenid Persians, the Macedonians and the Romans. 

Conversely, the modern Egyptian king feared nothing and journeyed far beyond the shores of the River Nile—perhaps, why we could excuse his futility with the Egyptian national team. Only our minds can imagine how far Ancient Egypt would have gone if it had taken a shot at global dominance. Today, with hopes of a Ballon d’Or victory to seal his global conquest, we celebrate the modern Egyptian king, who against all odds, is placing the map of Africa atop the global stage again. Truly, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.