Carragher Critiques Salah's Move to Trabzonspor: A Waste of Talent
Jamie Carragher did not bother dressing it up. For him, Mohamed Salah’s decision to swap Anfield for Trabzonspor is a waste of elite talent.
Speaking on the Football Ramble, the former Liverpool defender laid out his disbelief that one of the defining forwards of his generation has stepped away from Europe’s traditional power leagues.
“I never believed he was going to go to Saudi, because number one, he's too good for that,” Carragher said. “I think he can be playing in Serie A. Turkey for me feels a level too low.”
That is the crux of it. In Carragher’s eyes, this is a player who should still be walking out at the San Siro, not settling into life on the Black Sea coast.
Carragher wanted a Serie A stage, not a Super Lig project
While Trabzonspor celebrate a seismic coup and a commercial goldmine, Carragher sees a missed opportunity. At 34, Salah has left Liverpool having won everything that matters – Premier League, Champions League, and a stack of individual honours that turned him into the “Egyptian King” of Merseyside. Carragher expected the next act to echo Cristiano Ronaldo’s mid-30s path: stay at a “prestigious” institution and squeeze every last drop out of the very top level.
“I was convinced he'd end up at an AC Milan or Juventus or somewhere like that, maybe his wages were a problem,” he admitted. “I don't know him, obviously have never spoken to him. But he's like Ronaldo, he's so driven, his numbers mean so much to him.”
Carragher still believes Salah can bully defenders and rack up goals in Turkey. That’s not the point. The point, for him, is the badge on the shirt and the weight of the arena.
“I thought, he can still do this in Turkey by the way, but I thought he'd want to play at a real prestigious club.”
Money, visibility, and a league “beneath” him
Behind the frustration sits a hard reality. Trabzonspor have reportedly built a package worth €17 million per year to tempt Salah east. To make it happen, they have gambled heavily on a global superstar who only recently walked away from a £400,000‑a‑week offer at Liverpool.
For Carragher, that trade-off – money in a less demanding league versus the glare of Serie A or another top competition – tilts the wrong way.
The core of his criticism is blunt: Salah, he believes, is sacrificing visibility and the weekly grind of elite football for a lucrative contract in a division that will not test him often enough.
“Obviously his wage demands have put a few people off,” Carragher continued, “but I thought he might almost curb those demands a little bit to almost get a better club. To go to an AC Milan or Juventus or whoever it may be, play at the San Siro, still playing in big games, still playing in Europe. Turkey just feels like... I just think he's better than that.”
Trabzonspor will be in the Europa League next season, a platform but not the peak. Carragher’s argument is that the domestic rhythm – the weekly standard of the Super Lig – simply does not match Salah’s remaining quality.
A king in a new kingdom
On the ground, the mood could not be more different. The scenes at Istanbul Atatürk Airport told their own story: Salah arrived to a reception fit for royalty, greeted by a fanbase ready to deify him before he has kicked a ball.
Trabzonspor, champions as recently as 2022, have watched Galatasaray and Fenerbahce stretch away again. They are betting that Salah’s presence, aura, and numbers can close that gap in a hurry.
He will not be alone. In the north of Turkey he will link up with familiar Premier League faces, including Manchester United loanee Andre Onana and former Manchester City defender Stefan Savic. For a club desperate to reclaim the title and punch harder in Europe, this is a statement that they refuse to be a supporting act in their own league.
Carragher may see a player stepping down. Trabzonspor see the final piece of a title puzzle. And Salah, fully committed to this new adventure, now has to answer the only question that matters: can a legend of Anfield bend an entire league to his will one more time?
