Jamie Carragher has addressed a tidal wave of criticism he got after he described the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as not a ‘major tournament’.
The former England and Liverpool defender was discussing his old club’s best player, Mohamed Salah, when he dismissed the competition while weighing up his Ballon d’Or chances.
Both Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge stood up for AFCON as Carragher waved them off, but soon after he would have been well aware that they weren’t the only ones who disagreed.
A flood of African greats slammed the comments, as did Carragher’s former England teammate Rio Ferdinand, and after an explanation on social media, Carragher has now addressed the issue in full.
Speaking on CBS’ UEFA Champions League coverage, the pundit told host Kate Abdo: “What I would say is you know me better than anyone on this show and I’ve got very strong opinions on the game, I love debate and that will never change.
“But what I never want to be described as as a pundit would be ignorant or disrespectful, so that was never my aim, whether that’s to a club, a player, a country, a continent, an international tournament, whatever that may be.
“What I would say is, where I got it wrong was I was clumsy with my language, in describing AFCON as not a major tournament.
“I was trying to explain the merits of Mo Salah winning the Ballon d’Or and I felt, or feel, that not just AFCON, but the Asia Games or Gold Cup, not so much the Copa America, but there are five more competitions out there besides the World Cup that are for their continent a major tournament.
“Some of them don’t resonate with people who vote for the Ballon d’Or and that was not an opinion, that was a fact in terms of looking at who won the Ballon d’Or over the last 40 or 50 years.”
The last African to win football’s most prestigious trophy was Liberian George Weah in 1995.
The closest since was Salah’s old teammate Sadio Mane, perhaps undermining Carragher’s point as he finished second after an AFCON win in 2022.
Salah is this year’s favourite according to the bookmakers, having never finished higher than fifth previously.
Carragher is desperate for his fellow Liverpool great to take top honours, and will be more careful discussing such matters in the future.
He added: “Yes I’ve been banging the drum for Salah to be the first African player to win the Ballon d’Or since George Weah in the 90s and I should’ve been a lot tidier with my language around that so yes that’s something I’ll look at.
“But you look at the Euros, where it’s at right now and the competitions and some of them resonate with the Ballon d’Or voters whether that be journalists, managers, national captains.
“One of the reasons might be because, let’s not forget, the Ballon d’Or was the European footballer of the year, so maybe there is a bias towards the Euros or European football.
“It definitely is not my aim to offend people, I know I’ve done that in the past in different guises about different players or teams, but that was certainly not the case, and hopefully now that’s addressed it.”
talkSPORT
