Mohamed Salah was mobbed by hundreds of fans outside Ataturk Airport in Istanbul as Trabzonspor prepared to confirm his signing. The Egypt captain emerged wearing Trabzonspor colours before engaging with the excited crowd on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old forward left Liverpool at the end of last season after nine years on Merseyside, having scored 257 goals for the club. It is unclear what Salah will earn at Trabzonspor, but as a free agent the Super Lig club will have been able to commit more of their budget towards his wages. Salah, who has scored 50 Champions League goals, will play European football with Trabzonspor next season after they finished third in the Super Lig, eight points behind champions Galatasaray. If Trabzonspor fail to progress to the league phase of the Europa League via the play-offs, they will drop down to the Conference League.
Signing ceremony planned in Trabzon
Trabzonspor will hold a signing ceremony for Salah at Papara Park on Thursday at 17:30 BST. The club has asked supporters to attend wearing the new season’s shirts and, as they put it, ‘witness history’.
Nicknamed the Black Sea Storm, Trabzonspor have won seven league titles, six of which came between 1976 and 1984. In 2022 they claimed their most recent league success, ending a 38-year wait, and they are one of only six teams to have won the Turkish Super Lig. Salah’s signing will go down as the club’s biggest, as he joins former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge and former Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe in wearing the claret and sky blue shirt.
At Liverpool, Salah helped the club win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, the Uefa Super Cup, the FA Cup and two EFL Cups. During his time in England he won the Premier League Golden Boot on four occasions and was named the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year three times, in 2018, 2022 and 2025. Despite scoring 29 goals and making 18 assists in Liverpool’s 2024-25 title-winning season, his minutes diminished the following campaign after a falling out with former Reds head coach Arne Slot.
Turkish move follows Besiktas talks
Since announcing he would be leaving Liverpool a year before his two-year contract extension ended, the football world had been wondering where Salah would play next. After a successful World Cup campaign in which Egypt reached the round of 16 for the first time before narrowly losing to Argentina, Salah was reported to be close to an agreement with a different Turkish club, Besiktas. With that deal reportedly breaking down because of finances, Salah instead reached an agreement with Trabzonspor.
Trabzonspor teased the arrival on social media on Tuesday night, showing the Pyramids in a video next to Papara Park, before posting that negotiations had begun and tracking Salah’s Wednesday flight into Istanbul. ‘Trabzon, are you ready? See you very soon,’ Salah said in a video posted on social media from aboard a private jet.
Salah became Liverpool’s highest earner in the club’s history when he signed a reported £400,000-a-week contract in April 2025. Trabzonspor’s current squad includes on-loan Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana, along with Cape Verde World Cup players Wagner Pina and Sidny Lopes Cabral.
