Mohamed Salah Joins Trabzonspor: A New Chapter Begins
Mohamed Salah, the man who lit up Anfield for nearly a decade, has chosen a new stage. Not Saudi Arabia. Not Serie A. Turkey.
The 34-year-old has signed a two-year deal with Trabzonspor on a free transfer, ending a glittering Liverpool career that ran for nine years and delivered seven major trophies, 257 goals in 442 games, and a permanent place in the club’s history as their third-highest scorer of all time.
This is not the ending many imagined. But it is very much Salah’s.
Anfield era ends in rupture, not fade
His departure from Liverpool was not the gentle glide into goodbye that legends usually get. It came after a difficult, fractious season under Arne Slot, one that saw Salah dropped, their relationship unravel in public, and a mutual agreement to rip up a contract that still had a year to run, originally signed through April 2025.
For a player who had defined Liverpool’s modern era, it was a brutal twist. This was the forward who terrorised defences, dragged Jürgen Klopp’s side through title races, and turned Champions League nights into theatre. Yet by the end, he was on the bench at Leeds, then delivering a bombshell interview that made it clear the story was changing fast.
For a long time, the next chapter seemed pre-written: Saudi Arabia. Less than three years ago, Liverpool rejected a £150m offer from Al Ittihad. The Saudi Pro League kept circling, the money kept growing, and the assumption hardened that one day Salah would take that road.
He has not.
Why Trabzonspor makes sense for Salah
On paper, Trabzonspor looks like a left-field choice for a player of his standing. In reality, the move is calculated.
Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol outlined the logic from Salah’s side: the finances are strong, with reports in Turkey suggesting a salary of around £15m a year. The tax environment favours professional footballers, which makes that number stretch even further. It is not Saudi money, but it is still elite-level earnings without the same level of scrutiny or pressure that would follow a move to another European superpower.
Then there is the football itself. The Turkish Super Lig still offers big, hostile atmospheres and intense fixtures. Trabzonspor are regular contenders domestically and carry a realistic shot at European football, with a good chance of Europa League involvement next season. That matters to a player who has built his reputation on big nights, not just big cheques.
It is a package that works: strong salary, favourable tax, passionate environment, European stage. As Solhekol put it, it “ticks a lot of boxes”. Salah, crucially, had options. He chose this.
Carragher: “He’s better than that”
Not everyone is convinced.
Jamie Carragher, who watched Salah’s Liverpool career from the Sky Sports studio and knows what elite looks like, did not hide his surprise.
“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.”
Carragher expected a different route: AC Milan, Juventus, a San Siro stage, another tilt at the Champions League or at least the sharp end of European competition. In his eyes, Salah belongs in that company, even at 34.
“Looking at him, I don’t know him; I have never spoken to him,” Carragher added. “But he’s like Ronaldo, he’s so driven, his numbers mean so much to him. 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.”
For Carragher, the key tension is between prestige and pay. He suggested that Salah’s wage demands may have put off the likes of Milan or Juventus, and that the forward might have been better served by trimming those demands to secure one last move to a European giant.
“Obviously his wage demands have put a few people off but I thought he might almost curb those demands a little bit to almost get a better club,” Carragher said. “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.”
It is a blunt assessment, but it underlines the scale of Salah’s decision. He has not chased the absolute top level. Nor has he chased the absolute top money in Saudi. He has landed somewhere in between.
A different kind of final act
For Salah, this is a reset. The glare of the Premier League eases. The expectation to carry a title-chasing side every season falls away. He walks into a club that will build around him, a league where his name still carries star power, and a dressing room that will look to him as the man.
He will still score. He will still decide games. He will almost certainly still play European football. But the context changes. The stakes are different. The noise is softer.
At Liverpool, every touch was a referendum on legacy. At Trabzonspor, it becomes about something else: how a great player chooses to spend the final prime years of his career when he no longer has to prove anything to anyone.
He has left Anfield with his medals won, his records written, and his reputation secured. The debate now is not about what he was, but about what this move says about what he still wants to be.
Is this a gentle glide into a less demanding stage, or the start of a new, defiant chapter in a different corner of Europe?
The answer will not come in press conferences or punditry. It will come on those noisy Turkish nights when Mohamed Salah, in claret and blue, takes the ball on his left foot and reminds everyone why this decision was his to make.
