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Mohamed Salah has signed a two-year contract with Turkish Super Lig club Trabzonspor, becoming the highest-paid player in Turkish football history at €17 million net per season. The Egyptian icon, 34, left Liverpool as a free agent after nine years and 257 goals, with a move to Besiktas collapsing before Trabzonspor completed a stunning late hijack.
Mohamed Salah arrived at Istanbul Atatürk Airport on Wednesday morning, completing the most unexpected chapter of one of football’s great careers. After nine years, 257 goals and every trophy available in English football, the Egyptian legend has signed a two-year contract with Trabzonspor — making him the highest-paid player in the history of Turkish football at €17 million net per season.
Trabzon, Turkey: The pyramid appeared on Trabzonspor’s social media the night before he landed. A graphic showing one of Egypt’s ancient monuments in front of the club’s stadium on the Black Sea coast, captioned with two words: “Always believing.” It was the kind of theatrical flourish that signals a club knows exactly what it has done. What Trabzonspor had done was outmanoeuvre Istanbul giants Besiktas, agree to terms that no Turkish club had ever offered a player before, and sign the man who, for the better part of a decade, was the most feared forward in the Premier League.
Fabrizio Romano confirmed the deal on August 4 with his customary “here we go.” The details that followed explained why the move was so surprising — and so significant.
From Merseyside to the Black Sea
Salah had been a free agent since the end of June, when a mutual agreement with Liverpool ended his contract a year early despite it having twelve months to run. The decision was framed as being in both parties’ interests — Liverpool were already rebuilding around a younger forward line and had been planning for life without Salah for two seasons — but the parting, when it came, carried an emotional weight that no official statement could contain.
He left Anfield as the club’s all-time top scorer in the Premier League with 191 goals (he also scored 2 PL goals for Chelsea). In all competitions, only Ian Rush (346) and Roger Hunt (285) scored more in Liverpool colours than Salah’s 257. He won the Champions League in 2019, back-to-back Premier League titles in 2019-20 and 2024-25, the FA Cup, the EFL Cup and the Club World Cup. He helped Egypt to the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup before they were eliminated by eventual runners-up Argentina. At 34, he remains one of football’s most recognisable figures.
The summer that followed his exit was defined by speculation that never quite settled. Saudi Arabia’s financial packages were on the table throughout — and declined. Then Besiktas emerged as the frontrunners, their sporting director Önder Özen publicly announcing the club was in talks. Those negotiations collapsed over the jersey revenue split: Salah’s camp reportedly sought 50 per cent of jersey sales outside Turkey; Besiktas offered 25 per cent. The gap proved unbridgeable.
Trabzonspor’s Stunning Hijack
Into that gap stepped Trabzonspor. The club, which finished third in the Super Lig last season and will contest a Europa League playoff tie later this month, had been working quietly on a package designed to make the Besiktas offer look inadequate. They succeeded. The €17 million net per season they are paying Salah is a record salary in the history of Turkish football — not for a foreign player, not for a striker, but for any player who has ever played in the country.
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Additional financial terms reported in the Turkish press suggest Salah will also receive 100 per cent of jersey sales outside Turkey and 25 per cent domestically — the split that ended negotiations with Besiktas, now agreed on Salah’s terms with a different club. The total package, when additional costs are factored in, is reported to approach €23 million per year. For a club of Trabzonspor’s size, it represents a statement of extraordinary ambition.
Their president Ertuğrul Doğan had publicly dismissed transfer reports as recently as the week before the deal was announced — “there is no agreement, no planned trip,” he said — before the club’s own official X account announced Salah would arrive in Istanbul at noon on Wednesday. The contradiction, when it came, was explained only by the speed with which the final agreement had been reached once Besiktas withdrew.
A Welcome Fit for a Pharaoh
Salah landed at Istanbul Atatürk Airport on Wednesday morning, completed his medical, and signed his contract until 2028. He flew to Trabzon later that afternoon for a reception the club had been planning for some time, the welcome programme details released through official channels as promised. The scenes at Trabzon Airport were precisely what the club had anticipated: thousands of supporters, flares, chants that could be heard from the runway.
Trabzonspor will play in the Europa League this season alongside their Super Lig campaign, a stage that allows Salah to remain in continental competition — another factor cited in his decision to choose Turkey over the Saudi Pro League, where the domestic nature of the competition had reportedly given him pause. Whether he can reproduce the form that made him one of the Premier League’s great players at 34, in a different league and climate, is the question European football will spend the next two years answering.
What is already clear is that Turkish football has its biggest signing since the sport began there. The pyramid outside the stadium, the “Always believing” caption — Trabzonspor understood exactly what this moment meant. And they made sure it arrived on the Black Sea, not the Bosphorus.
Transfer details: Player: Mohamed Salah | From: Liverpool (free agent) | To: Trabzonspor | Contract: 2 years (to June 2028) | Annual salary: €17m net
Liverpool record: 257 goals in 442 games | Premier League top scorer: 191 goals (overall 193 PL goals, including 2 for Chelsea)| Trophies: Champions League (1), Premier League (2), FA Cup (1), EFL Cup (1), Club World Cup (1)
Note: Trabzonspor will play Europa League playoff tie later in August 2026
