‘I could have been tidier’ – Jamie Carragher addresses controversial Afcon comments and explains his ‘mistake’

JAMIE CARRAGHER has addressed his controversial comments after he claimed the African Cup of Nations was not a “major tournament”.

The ex-Liverpool star triggered huge outcry after he suggested Mohamed Salah‘s Ballon d’Or claim would not be as strong because he did not play in one of the major international tournaments.

GettyJamie Carragher has addressed the comments he made about Afcon[/caption]

RexCarragher admitted he could have used ‘tidier’ language when expressing his point[/caption]

Speaking after the Reds’ 2-0 win over Manchester City in February, he said: “I think the problem is the fact he’s with Egypt, and he’s probably not playing in a major tournament as such, or maybe got a great chance of winning.

“I think it’s either the Champions League or the major tournament. Normally, the player who excels in that.”

The likes of Rio Ferdinand, John Obi Mikel, Jay Jay Okocha and Ahmed Elmohamady had levelled brutal replies towards the former defender.

Ferdinand said it was an “ignorant thought process”, while Obi Mikel told him in no uncertain terms to “f*** off”.

However, Carragher has now addressed those claims while appearing on CBS Sports.

Appearing alongside Micah Richards, who had called Carragher out live on Sky Sports when he made the original comment, Thierry Henry and presenter Kate Abdo (now Scott), he admitted he had used “clumsy” language, but stood by his overall point.

He said: “I have got very strong opinions on the game, I love debate, and that will never change.

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

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“And whether that’s to a player, a club, a country, a continent, a continental tournament, whatever that may be.

“What I would say is, where I got it wrong was, I was clumsy describing Afcon as not a major tournament.

“I was trying to explain the merits of Mo Salah winning the Ballon d’Or, and I feel that not just Afcon, I would say the Asia Games, the Gold Cup, not so much the Copa America.

“But there are five major tournaments out there besides the World Cup that are for their continent and are a major tournament.

“But some of them don’t resonate with the people who vote for the Ballon d’Or.

“That for me was not an opinion, that was a fact in terms of looking who had won the Ballon d’Or in the last 40 or 50 years.

“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 ’90s.

“As I said, I should have been a lot tidier with my language around that, so yes, that’s something I’ll look at.

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

“And one of the reasons might be, sometimes we forget, the Ballon d’Or was the European Footballer of the Year.

“So maybe there is a bias towards the Euros or European football in the past.

“It was definitely not my aim to offend anybody – I know I’ve done that a lot in the past in different guises about different players and teams.

“But that was certainly not the case. yes, hopefully that’s now addressed it.”

Afcon is a tournament played out every two years and is scheduled during European winter time.

Only one African nation has ever reached the last four of the World Cup, with Morocco doing so in 2022.

The only African player to win the Ballon d’Or was former AC Milan and Liberia striker George Weah in 1995.

Ex-Liverpool and Senegal star Sadio Mane is the only African to be voted into the top three in the 21st century – with Salah finishing fifth that year and in 2019.