Mohamed Salah's Move to Trabzonspor Marks Liverpool Career End
Mohamed Salah has drawn a firm line under one of the great modern Liverpool careers, walking away from Anfield and into a new life with Trabzonspor on a free transfer that still feels jarring when you say it out loud.
A nine-year spell on Merseyside is over. A two-year deal in Turkey awaits.
Salah, 34 now, left Liverpool at the end of last season after he and the club agreed to terminate his contract a year early. The agreement cut short terms that were due to run until April 2025, and it followed a fraught campaign in which he was dropped and publicly clashed with then-head coach Arne Slot. For a player who had become the face of Liverpool’s resurgence, the end was messy, abrupt, and very human.
Seven major trophies, 257 goals in 442 games, and a place as the club’s third-highest scorer of all time.
That is the cold record. The reality is warmer: for almost a decade, Liverpool’s attack bent around him, their biggest nights carried his imprint.
And yet, when the curtain finally fell, he didn’t head for Saudi Arabia, where the money has been chasing him for years, or for one of Europe’s traditional superpowers. He chose Trabzon.
Why Trabzonspor, why now?
For once, the answer is relatively straightforward.
“The deal makes financial sense for him,” explained Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol, spelling out the logic behind a move that stunned more than a few in England. Reports in Turkey suggest Salah will earn around £15m a year. On top of that, Turkey’s tax regime is notably kind to professional footballers. It adds up.
The football side is not insignificant either. The Super Lig remains a fiercely followed, emotionally charged competition, and Trabzonspor are not a backwater. They are a club with a fervent fanbase, a history of challenging Istanbul’s dominance and, crucially, a route back into Europe.
“He’s also got the prospect of playing European competition. There’s a good chance Trabzonspor will be playing in the Europa League next season,” Solhekol pointed out. “It ticks a lot of boxes for him. He had lots of other options as well.”
For a player whose numbers have always mattered, the chance to keep stacking goals and appearances in European competition, while earning elite money in a less demanding environment, is not a trivial package. It is a second act with comfort built in.
Saudi, once inevitable, fades away
Not long ago, it looked like an entirely different ending.
Saudi clubs, particularly Al Ittihad, circled for years. Less than three seasons have passed since Liverpool rejected a £150m bid from the Jeddah side for Salah, a statement at the time that the club would not cash out their talisman even at eye-watering prices.
The lure never went away. The Saudi Pro League has made a habit of snapping up ageing superstars, and when Salah delivered a bombshell interview after being dropped at Leeds last season, the path seemed clear. Big fee, bigger wages, a soft landing in a league built around celebrity.
That is not how it played out. The kingdom’s chequebook did not get its man. Turkey did.
Carragher: “He’s better than that”
Not everyone is convinced this is the right stage for one of the Premier League’s defining forwards.
Jamie Carragher, never shy of a strong line, questioned the choice on Sky Sports.
“I never believed he was going to go to Saudi, because number one, he’s too good for that,” he said. “I think he can be playing in Serie A. Turkey for me feels a level too low.”
Carragher thought the script was already written. AC Milan. Juventus. A big Italian club, a grand old stadium, one last dance at the sharp end of the Champions League and Serie A title races.
“I was convinced he’d end up at AC Milan or Juventus or somewhere like that; maybe his wages were a problem,” he admitted. “Looking at him, I don’t know him; I have never spoken to him.
“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.”
The implication is clear: the market for Salah at the very top level did not quite stretch to his financial expectations.
“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 continued. “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.”
A new stage, same obsession
Strip away the emotion and the nostalgia and the move still carries intrigue.
Trabzonspor gain a global superstar who, even in what Liverpool considered a difficult season, remained a decisive player. Salah gains a contract that recognises his status, a league that will revolve around him, and the chance to keep playing European football without the suffocating scrutiny of the Premier League.
He leaves England not as a fading figure, but as a player whose relationship with his club simply ran out of road.
The numbers that drove him at Liverpool will follow him to Turkey. The question now is not whether he can still score, still decide games, still drag a team with him. It is whether the Super Lig, and Trabzonspor in particular, can give a player of his stature a stage big enough to match the ambition that carried him this far.
