Liverpool target has just finished above Jude Bellingham in voting for prestigious award

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Liverpool want Jamal Musiala and the Bayern Munich star has finished above Jude Bellingham in the voting for the Kopa Trophy.

The Ballon d’Or ceremony took centre stage on Monday evening as Karim Benzema was crowned as the best player in the world over the last year.

Benzema saw off competition from Sadio Mane and Kevin De Bruyne to win the award, with the first year since 2006 that neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi were in the top three.

The Kopa Trophy – given to the best-performing player under the age of 21 – was also handed out with Barcelona’s Gavi taking the award.

Liverpool want Jamal Musiala amid third-place Kopa Trophy finish

Gavi followed in the footsteps of Barcelona teammate Pedri, who won the award last year.

Barcelona should have a quality midfield pairing for years to come but they will be coming up against Eduardo Camavinga, the Real Madrid ace who finished second in the voting.

In third was Bayern star Jamal Musiala, who has enjoyed a blistering start to this season with seven goals and eight assists in 14 games.

This was Musiala’s second third-place finish in a row as the German was again recognised as one of the top talents in the world.

What’s interesting is that Musiala finished ahead of Borussia Dortmund star Jude Bellingham, who finished in fourth place in the voting.

Liverpool will have seen that outcome amid claims that they are interested in signing both players.

It has been well-reported that Liverpool want to sign Bellingham next summer and the Daily Mail reported in August that the Reds are expecting a deal.

Liverpool need to get their season fully on track to make that happen though as Bellingham surely won’t be signing for a club who don’t have Champions League football.

The Reds would be wise to have other targets in mind and Musiala appears to be one of them.

Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg has claimed that that Liverpool are interested in signing Musiala as they consider other options away from Bellingham.

Voters seemingly believe that Musiala is slightly ahead of Bellingham right now and that’s something for Liverpool to decide for themselves.

It’s unlikely that Bayern will sell Musiala, which is another factor to consider, but it seems that the German shouldn’t be viewed as a consolation prize by any stretch of the imagination.