Mohamed Salah 'Definitely' World's Best, Better Than Ronaldo And Messi: Dejan Lovren

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is the best player in the world right now, according to teammate Dejan Lovren.

Salah joined Liverpool from AS Roma last summer in a £34 million ($45.75 million) deal and completely exceeded expectations as he helped Jurgen Klopp's men to a fourth place finish as well as reaching the Champions League final where they will play reigning champions Real Madrid.

The Egyptian's stunning goal-scoring form with 44 goals in 51 games in all competitions have also seen him win a number of Player of the Year awards while his 32 league goals saw him cement the Premier League Golden Boot as well.

His performances throughout the season have led many to believe he will challenge Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi's duopoly as the best players in the world with no player other than the duo winning the Balon D'Or award since Kaka achieved the feat in 2007.

Lovren is one of them as he believes Salah is now in the same league as them and has a good chance of winning the award especially if Liverpool go on to beat Madrid and win a sixth Champions League crown.

"Of course I spoke to Mo about that [the Ballon d'Or] but it's still an early stage," Lovren said at a news conference, as per Goal.com. "If we win [the final], he's definitely one of the contenders. ... He can be in the top three best players in the world. He has this world-class experience already. He is still calm, down to earth and he deserves every credit and every goal he's scored up to now. We will help him to achieve this dream for himself personally."

While Salah is yet to perform like he has this season on a consistent basis like Ronaldo and Messi have done over the years, Lovren feels as of now, the 25-year-old can be considered the best player in the world given the impact that he's had this season.

"Definitely. When you score that many in the Premier League, definitely," Lovren added when asked if Salah is the best in the world right now. "When you look at Messi and Ronaldo, it's Mo Salah. He deserves to be in the top three."

The Champions League final takes place at the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 26 as Liverpool will be looking to deny Zinedine Zidane's men an unprecedented third consecutive title.

Madrid's main threat as always will be Ronaldo and Lovren will be tasked with giving him a quiet game. While the Croatian is up for the task, he adds that players like the Portuguese captain will have to be stopped as a team.

"Ronaldo, Salah, Messi – you need to respect these players a lot. Every year he [Ronaldo] scores 30 goals, even if he has a bad season, so you need to pay attention to that," Lovren explained. "Also, in the Premier League we play against some of the best strikers in the world. We know how to defend like a team. ... When we want to stop Ronaldo, we will stop him together. Some parts of the game will be one against one and it will be tough, but it's a challenge I'm ready for. I've been working so hard. I'm ready for everything."