In a transfer that stunned the football world, Mohamed Salah has left Liverpool after nine remarkable seasons to join Trabzonspor, a Turkish club based in a city far from Europe's usual football hotspots. The move has been described by club president Ahmet Agaoglu Dogan as a project years in the making, one that finally came together in a matter of days once serious negotiations began.
Trabzon, a Black Sea city of roughly 800,000 people near Turkey's border with Georgia, is not among the country's 20 largest urban areas. Yet Dogan believes the city offers something unique that helped sway Salah's decision. "I always say this about Trabzonspor and the city - we're the biggest one-club city in the world," he said. According to Dogan, the club told Salah he would "meet a group of supporters unlike any you have experienced before" and "feel the genuine love those people have inside them."
Dogan, a Trabzon native who built his fortune in real estate, hazelnuts and later biofuels, took charge of the club in 2023, not long after Trabzonspor's title-winning 2021-22 campaign. Since then, the Black Sea Storm have finished third, seventh and third in the Super Lig, and last season they lifted the Turkish Cup under coach Fatih Tekke. Tekke is now attempting to guide the club into the Europa League, though they suffered a 1-0 home defeat in the first leg of their play-off against Ferencvaros of Hungary.
Dogan explained that Salah's arrival fits into a broader strategy of blending emerging talent with established stars. "We are working to make Trabzonspor and Trabzon itself a destination for talented young players from all over the world," he said. "We want to take them to the next level, to move on to bigger European clubs... Mohamed Salah is a really great example in this respect."
This summer, Trabzonspor sold Ivorian midfielder Christ Inao Oulai, 20, to Fiorentina and Brazilian forward Felipe Augusto, 22, to Zenit St Petersburg, both for significant profits after just one season at the club. Young signings from Albania, Belgium, Cape Verde and Portugal have arrived as replacements, while Cameroonian goalkeeper Andre Onana has returned for a second loan spell from Manchester United. But it is the Salah deal that has captured global attention.
Dogan revealed that Salah will earn €17m per year, along with 20% of merchandise revenue bearing his name, though he acknowledged the transfer makes little financial sense in isolation. "Purely from a financial perspective, this transfer has no direct return as such," he admitted. To help fund the deal, the club raised season ticket prices, with Dogan telling supporters, "Look, I'm bringing you Salah, one of the biggest stars in the world." Remarkably, nearly 70% of Salah's first-year salary was covered by season ticket sales in just the first four or five days after the announcement. The club's original target of 25,000 season tickets is now expected to surpass 30,000, while major companies both in Turkey and abroad have expressed interest in partnerships tied to Salah's arrival.
Many had predicted Salah, the Premier League's fourth all-time leading scorer, would follow the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia or Lionel Messi to Major League Soccer. Instead, he chose Turkey. Dogan said Trabzonspor had been monitoring Salah since the World Cup but waited for other suitors to step aside before entering talks in earnest. "Once we started talking, both sides genuinely approached each other very sincerely," he said, noting the deal was finalized in about five or six days following an initial Zoom meeting and further discussions while Salah was on holiday in Mykonos.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport Football.