Salah, Yamal, Dembele May Win Ballon d’Or Award – Lineker

Football icon Gary Lineker believes the Ballon d’Or award race will be among the trio of Mohamed Salah, Lamine Yamal and Ousmane Dembele.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Lineker admitted he cannot name a winner but the final games of the season will reveal who is likely to lift the award at the end of the season.

“It’s still too early to say obviously, because this is done for the end of the year. So I suppose it does depend who wins the Champions League.

“If PSG go on to win the Champions League, you’d have to say (Ousmane) Dembele will have an excellent chance of winning it. It doesn’t mean to say you’d rule out Lamine Yamal or Raphinha, because they’ll probably do the double.

“They’ve already won the Copa del Rey, they’re looking very good for La Liga. Yes, they’ve got a Classico coming up, but they’ve got a four-point gap so they should be able to hang on, even if they lose that game.

“I think it’s probably brought one or two more players into the equation, possibly even Mohamed Salah – what he’s done this season, definitely has to be in contention. It’s tough to call at the moment, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Somebody might sparkle in the Champions League final and blow us all away. We’ll have to wait and see.”