Trabzonspor's latest social media tease appeared late on Tuesday evening. It was a 17-second AI-generated clip of a pyramid with green trees growing around it, revealed to be overlooking Papara Park stadium, accompanied by a crown emoji. Within hours, the club confirmed the unthinkable: Mohamed Salah, one of the Premier League's most decorated forwards, was on his way to Turkey.
Key facts
- Mohamed Salah has signed a two-year deal with Trabzonspor.
- He will earn €17m per annum: €10m salary plus €7m signing-on fee.
- Salah left Liverpool at the end of last season after nine years.
- Trabzonspor are the fourth-biggest club in Turkey and the most successful outside Istanbul.
- He will wear No 10, with a shirt bearing No 61 for the club's city.
The Announcement
The 34-year-old Egyptian landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, where he was mobbed by fans, before travelling on to Trabzon, a city on Turkey's northern coast. Trabzonspor even livestreamed his journey on their YouTube channel, requiring a premium subscription for parts. A video showed Salah wearing a Trabzonspor shirt on his plane, with the number 61 on the back — a badge of identity for the city, representing its postal code and car plates. He will wear No 10 when he makes his debut.
Salah had left Liverpool at the end of last season, bringing to a close a nine-year spell at Anfield. He scored 29 goals in the Premier League during his final title-winning season with the club, and remains the league's leading foreign goalscorer. His departure had been expected to spark a bidding war, yet the summer took a different shape.
Interest from MLS and Saudi Arabia did not materialise. Sporting Kansas City were prepared to match his Liverpool wages, but never made a formal offer after being told Salah wanted to stay on the European stage. Saudi Pro League clubs made contact, as they had done before, but Salah was not interested this time. Instead, Trabzonspor emerged from the darkness.
Why Trabzonspor?
The answer is partly about geography, partly about money and partly about Turkish football's peculiar place in the global game. The Super Lig has long been a destination for stars past their peak, from Roberto Carlos to Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder. But Salah is different: he is only one season removed from scoring 29 goals in a Premier League title-winning season.
The Istanbul big three — Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas — are the natural landing spots for a player of this stature in Turkey. Yet neither Galatasaray nor Fenerbahce were interested, despite being offered the chance. Besiktas entered protracted negotiations and looked close at times, but their technical director Onder Ozen said the club made a "realistic decision" and left the table, unwilling to meet Salah's financial demands.
Trabzonspor are the fourth-biggest club in Turkish football, and the most successful outside Istanbul. They have won the Super Lig seven times, although all but one of those titles came in the 1970s and 1980s. They are one of only two Anatolian clubs to win the league. But they are a long way from the Champions League. They finished third in Turkey last season, with only the top two entering Champions League qualifiers, so they will play in the Europa League playoff round against Ferencvaros or Gornik Zabrze.
Financial Details
The financial package is remarkable for a club of this size. Trabzonspor confirmed Salah will receive €17m per annum, consisting of a €10m salary and a €7m signing-on fee, paid in each season. He will also receive 20 per cent of merchandise sales directly related to him. The agents involved will receive five per cent of the gross fee, a minimum of €1.7m over the two-year contract.
How can a club that is not in the Champions League afford this? The answer lies in sponsorship, primarily through deals with Turkish Airlines and Togg, a Turkish electric car manufacturer. Both have connections to the Turkish government. This is a familiar pattern in Turkish football, where the state and state-linked companies have helped clubs finance glamorous signings.
Turkish Football's Tug of War
Salah's arrival is part of a broader desperation to stop Galatasaray's dominance. Galatasaray have won the last four Super Lig titles under Okan Buruk, and nobody has ever won five in a row. Trabzonspor finished eight points behind them last season, and their rivals have also strengthened. Besiktas have signed Leandro Trossard and moved on to Dusan Vlahovic. Fenerbahce have signed Mason Greenwood and Nathan Ake, and have a new president desperate to end their title drought, which dates back to 2014.
The city of Trabzon itself may have appealed to Salah. He enjoyed a relatively quiet life in the countryside during his time at Liverpool, and Trabzon is more modest than Istanbul. Turkey is also a broadly Muslim country, and although Salah spent nine years in England, this will be the first time since leaving Egypt in 2012 that he is the marquee star in a Muslim-majority country.
Salah's New Surroundings
There are still questions about whether this is a good move for Salah's legacy. He could have stayed at Liverpool, or chosen a more ambitious European club. But the reality is that Turkey appears to be the only European country with clubs willing to meet his demands, and with the big three out of the picture, Trabzonspor were the next in line. It may be a disappointment to those who expected him to end his career in the Premier League or La Liga, but it is a reflection of the market.
Salah will play alongside Paul Onuachu, who scored freely in Turkey over the past two seasons but struggled at Southampton. Andre Onana has signed on another loan from Manchester United, and there are two members of the Cape Verde side that captivated the World Cup: Wagner Pina and Sidny Lopes Cabral, scorer of that screamer against Argentina. The quality around Salah will be a significant drop from Liverpool's squad, but he will be the undisputed star.
The signing is not just the biggest in Trabzonspor's history; it might be the biggest in Turkish football history. Gheorghe Hagi arrived at Galatasaray in 1996 at the age of 31 and won four Super Lig titles, and his legacy is still felt. Roberto Carlos, Wesley Sneijder, Didier Drogba and Robin van Persie all made high-profile moves to Turkey. But none of them arrived with the same recent accomplishments as Salah, who led Liverpool to a title in 2025 and has been a Ballon d'Or contender for years.
What Comes Next?
Salah's medical at Acibadem Maslak Hospital was completed on Wednesday, and he then headed to Trabzon to meet his new supporters. The club had earlier posted a video of him in a Trabzonspor shirt, and the city was already buzzing. There is a saying in Turkey that "titles are won at the airport," referring to the tendency for glamorous foreign signings to create excitement. Salah's arrival has certainly delivered that.
But can he lead Trabzonspor to the title? It will be a long shot. Galatasaray remain strong, and the other challengers have also invested heavily. Salah's individual brilliance could make a difference, but Turkish football is unpredictable and the Super Lig is known for its intense atmospheres and physical play. At 34, Salah will need to adapt quickly. His experience at Liverpool, where he stayed fit and scored consistently well into his thirties, gives hope.
The transfer also says something about the state of European football's mid-tier markets. The Premier League's financial dominance has pushed players like Salah toward clubs that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. The Saudi Pro League and MLS have challenged Turkey's traditional role as a landing spot for ageing stars, but Turkey still offers European football, passionate crowds, and generous tax arrangements for foreign players. For Salah, it was the right balance.
Ultimately, the saga that dominated many transfer windows ended not with a return to the Premier League, not with a blockbuster move to Saudi Arabia, but with a move to a city of around 250,000 people on Turkey's Black Sea coast. One of the summer's most protracted transfer stories is over, and not in the way most expected.
Source:The Athletic News