‘I was clumsy with my language’: Jamie Carragher walks back Afcon statements

TV pundit Jamie Carragher has walked back his statements on the stature of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), saying he chose “clumsy language” in his description.

The former Liverpool and England defender came under fire for saying the Afcon was “not a major tournament”. He said this could hinder Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah’s chances of winning the Ballon d’Or for best footballer in the world this year despite superb form for his club.

“What I would say is, you know me better than anybody on this show and I’ve got strong opinions on the game, I love debate and that will never change,” Carragher said before Tuesday’s Uefa Champions League match night, for which he was an analyst.

“But what I would never want to be described as, as a pundit, would be ignorant or disrespectful. So that was never my aim.

“And that’s to a player, a club, a country, a continent and international tournaments, whatever it may be.

“What I would say is where I got it wrong, 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 prize and I felt, or feel, that, not just Afcon but I would say the Asia Games, the Gold Cup, not so much the Copa America ... there are five major tournaments out there besides the World Cup that are for their continents and obviously major tournaments.

“But some of them don’t resonate with the people who vote for the Ballon d’Or. And that for me was not an opinion, that was like a fact in terms of looking at who has won the Ballon d’Or over the past 40, 50 years.

“So, yes, I’ve been banging the drum for Mo Salah to become the first African player to win the Ballon d’Or since George Weah in the mid-1990s.

“And, as I say, I should have been a lot tidier with my language around that.

“As I said, you look at the Euros as where it’s at now, and other competitions, and some of them resonate with the Ballon d’Or voters, who at times are journalists, national coaches, national captains.

“And one of the reasons might be because, I think sometimes we forget the Ballon d’Or was the European footballer of the year, so maybe there is a bias towards maybe the Euros or European football in the past.

“So it was definitely not my aim to offend anybody. I know I’ve done that a lot in the past in different guises, shall we say, but maybe [offending] different players or teams. But that was certainly not the case and, yes, hopefully that’s now addressed it.”

Liberia’s Weah, then playing for AC Milan, was Africa’s only winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1995.

The award was started by magazine France Football in 1956 and served as the European Footballer of the Year award until 1995, the year Weah won it.