Mohamed Salah only fifth-best in the world with Lionel Messi ranked higher on FM22

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah has been named as the fifth-best player in the world on Football Manager 2022 following the game's Winter Update, despite his incredible 2021/22 season so far.

Sports Interactive, the creators of the popular football management simulation game Football Manager 2022, released the Main Winter Update on On Thursday, February 24, 2022 with some big attribute changes handed to some of Europe's top talent, but Salah was not one of them.

Fellow Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk jumped from ninth spot to sixth, after Tottenham's Harry Kane and Man United's Cristiano Ronaldo were downgraded, but like Salah, the defender was not awarded an upgrade in-game.

The FM22 Winter Update saw a new player take the number one spot in-game with Lionel Messi receiving a big downgrade to his Current Ability (CA). Messi's CA dropped from 194/200 to 186/200 after an underwhelming start to life at Paris Saint-Germain, but the Argentine remains higher rated than Salah.

So, what players are judged to be 'better' than Salah in the latest Football Manager 2022 Winter Update? Let's take a look.

Best 50 players in the world according to FM22

After Messi's big downgrade, the 34-year-old dropped from first to fourth in FM22's list of best players based on current ability, sending Robert Lewandowski to top spot, who like Salah, didn't receive any change to his CA.

Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne jumped from third to second, despite his CA decreasing from 188/200 to 187/200, and PSG's Kylian Mbappe was handed a +2 upgrade to his CA, making him the third-best player in the world according to FM22, leapfrogging Salah in the list. The top 50 best players based on Current Ability (CA) after the FM22 Winter Update can be seen below, along with their change in rank since the game's release in November.

1. Robert Lewandowski - Bayern Munich (190/200) +1
2. Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City (187/200) +1
3. Kylian Mbappe - Paris Saint-Germain (186/200)+3
4. Lionel Messi - Paris Saint-Germain (186/200) -3
5. Mohamed Salah - Liverpool (184/200) =
6. Virgil van Dijk - Liverpool (180/200) +3
7. Karim Benzema - Real Madrid (180/200) +1
8. Neymar - Paris Saint-Germain (180/200) +2
9. Harry Kane - Tottenham Hotspur (179/200) -5
10. Thibaut Courtois - Real Madrid (178/200) +7
11. Manuel Neuer - Bayern Munich (178/200)
    
12. Joshua Kimmich - Bayern Munich (178/200)
13. Erling Haaland - Borussia Dortmund (177/200)
14. Jan Oblak - Atletico Madrid (176/200)
15. Sadio Mane - Liverpool (176/200)
16. Luka Modric - Real Madrid (174/200)
17. Marc-Andre ter Stegen - Barcelona (174/200)
18. Alisson - Liverpool (174/200)
19. Thomas Muller - Bayern Munich (174/200)
20. Bernardo Silva - Manchester City (174/200)
21. Romelu Lukaku - Chelsea (171/200)
22. Ruben Dias - Manchester City (171/200)
23. N'Golo Kante - Chelsea (170/200)
24. Ederson - Manchester City (170/200)
25. Toni Kroos - Real Madrid (169/200)
26. Bruno Fernandes - Manchester United (169/200)
27. Raheem Sterling - Manchester City (169/200)
28. Leroy Sane - Bayern Munich (169/200)
29. Heung-Min Son - Tottenham Hostpur (168/200)
30. Aymeric Laporte - Manchester City (168/200)
31. Jack Grealish - Manchester City (167/200)
32. Joao Cancelo - Manchester City (167/200)
33. Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United (167/200)
34. Vinicius Junior - Real Madrid (166/200)
35. Antonio Rudiger - Chelsea (166/200)
36. Luis Suarez - Atletico Madrid (166/200)
37. Lautaro Martinez - Inter (166/200)
38. Antoine Griezmann - Atletico Madrid (165/200)
39. Edouard Mendy - Chelsea (165/200)
40. Leon Goretzka - Bayern Munich (165/200)
41. Rodri - Manchester City (165/200)
42. Mason Mount - Chelsea (164/200)
43. Jorginho - Chelsea (164/200)
44. Fabinho - Liverpool (164/200)
45. Mateo Kovacic - Chelsea (164/200)
46. Frenkie de Jong - Barcelona (164/200)
47. David Alaba - Real Madrid (164/200)
48. Serge Gnabry - Bayern Munich (164/200)
49. Thiago Alcantara - Liverpool (164/200)
50. Nicolo Barella - Inter (164/200)

There are a total of six Liverpool players who feature in the top 50, with Sadio Mane, Fabinho, Alisson and Thiago joining Van Dijk and Salah in the top 50 best players in the world.

It's interesting to see that Mbappe received a big upgrade and Salah didn't, with both forwards outputting similar numbers of goal contributions this season. In all competitions, Salah has scored 27 and assisted 10 in 32 appearances, whilst Mbappe has scored 24 and assisted 17 in 34 games.

Liverpool fans may also find it surprising that Virgil van Dijk has not received an upgrade in the Winter Update after his return to football after nearly a year's absence, with the defender the sixth highest-ranked player in the game on CA. Harry Kane was handed a major downgrade after a poor opening to his season, whilst Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo's CA dropped massively from 182/200 to 167/200, seeing the Portuguese forward free-fall out of the top 10 players.

Does the FM22 Winter Update accurately represent Salah's current ability in real-life? Or was the winger harshly judged? Let us know in the comments.

FM22 features a brand new Versus mode, now available for FM22 as part of the Winter Update, with players now also able to load up and use an updated database (22.3.0) for their new save games, which features all of the updated transfers around the world and some big attribute changes, depending on their real-life form.