Expected Free Transfer

Trabzonspor announced a day earlier they were in negotiations with Salah, who left Liverpool at the end of last season; Club chairman Ertugrul Dogan said they expected to sign the 34-year-old on a free transfer at a ceremony in the Black Sea city on Thursday.

“Trabzon, are you ready? I can hear you. See you very soon,” Salah said in a video posted by the club on X — “Everywhere is Trabzon to us,” he added, referring to the club’s motto while wearing a Trabzonspor kit.

Reaction from Fans

Upon arriving at Ataturk Airport, Salah was met by hundreds of fans, though he waved at supporters and initiated a traditional chant with them before departing for a medical check and a later planned flight east to Trabzon.

Salah spent nine years at Liverpool, scoring 257 goals in 442 appearances and winning the Premier League twice and the Champions League once. In the 2024-25 season, Salah scored 29 Premier League goals and provided 18 assists, equalling the league record for most goal involvements in a single season and setting the record for a 38-game campaign.

He was named Premier League Player of the Season and won the Golden Boot and the Playmaker Award, becoming the first player to take all three in one campaign. His output waned last season, with seven goals and seven assists in 27 league matches, and he was left on the bench in Champions League games, leading to a public spat with Liverpool’s then-manager Arne Slot.

Background on Salah’s Career

Salah started his career in Europe at Swiss side Basel in 2012 and later joined Chelsea, he also had brief stints at Fiorentina and AS Roma between 2015 and 2017 before joining Liverpool. Salah had been close to joining Besiktas, but negotiations had stalled over financial and image-rights demands, according to local media.

Details of the contract Salah is expected to sign have not been disclosed yet. It is unclear what Salah will earn at Trabzonspor, but as he is a free agent, the Super Lig club will have been able to commit more of their budget towards Salah’s wages.

Salah, who has scored 50 Champions League goals, will play European football with Trabzonspor next season after they finished third, eight points behind champions Galatasaray, as If they fail to progress to the league phase of the Europa League via the play-offs, they will drop down to the Conference League.

Salah became Liverpool’s highest earner in their history when he signed a reported £400,000-a-week contract in April 2025 — 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.

Based in the north-eastern city of Trabzon, 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 donning the claret and sky blue shirt.

He helped Liverpool to win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Club World Cup, Uefa Super Cup, FA Cup, and two EFL Cups. During his time in England, the Egyptian 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.

But despite scoring 29 goals and making 18 assists in Liverpool’s 2024-25 title-winning season, Salah’s minutes diminished the following campaign after a falling out with former Reds head coach Arne Slot.

Salah fever takes over Turkey since announcing he would be leaving Liverpool a year before his two-year contract extension ended. After a successful World Cup campaign where 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 a deal breaking down reportedly because of finances, Salah reached an agreement instead with Trabzonspor.

The Turkish side took to their social media on Tuesday night to tease the arrival of Salah with the Pyramids being shown on a video next to Papara Park. Following swiftly was another post stating “negotiations had begun” between Salah and Trabzonspor before showing how Salah’s Wednesday flight into Istanbul could be tracked.