Salah joins Trabzonspor on two-year deal
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- Mohamed Salah signed a two-year contract with Trabzonspor until June 2028, with the package reportedly worth around £7.3m per season plus bonuses and a share of merchandise revenue — below what Saudi clubs could have offered.
- Salah turned down approaches from Saudi clubs including Al-Ittihad, plus MLS side Sporting Kansas City, with the appeal of continuing in Uefa competition decisive after he helped Egypt reach the 2026 World Cup knockout stages.
- Trabzonspor finished third in last season's Super Lig and won the Turkish Cup; they face Europa League play-offs this month against either Hungary's Ferencvaros or Poland's Gornik Zabrze.
- Besiktas attempted to sign Salah before negotiations collapsed over the financial structure of the deal, clearing the path for city rival Trabzonspor.
- The Super Lig recorded the third-highest net transfer spend in world football last summer behind only the Premier League and Saudi Pro League, with Victor Osimhen, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan among recent high-profile arrivals.
- Salah's final Liverpool season saw him score 12 goals across all competitions and fall out of favour under manager Arne Slot — a sharp drop from his 34-goal, 23-assist title-winning campaign the year before.
Why it matters: Salah picks a historically mid-tier Turkish club over Saudi Arabia's petrodollars at a reported £7.3m-per-year package, handing Trabzonspor their most marketable signing ever and underlining the Super Lig's pull — though Opta still ranks Turkey's top flight only 14th worldwide, and only one Turkish side has reached a major Uefa semi-final since Galatasaray's 2000 UEFA Cup win.
