Mohamed Salah's New Chapter at Trabzonspor
Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool story is over. After nine years, 211 goals and a place carved deep into Anfield folklore, the Egyptian forward has chosen a new and unexpected stage: Trabzon.
The 34-year-old has arrived in Turkey ahead of a free transfer to Trabzonspor, ending a contract at Liverpool that still had a year to run. The medical and final signatures are pending, but the direction of travel is clear. One of the Premier League era’s defining forwards is about to swap the Kop for the Black Sea coast.
Following a familiar Liverpool trail
Salah is not the first Liverpool star to take this route. Daniel Sturridge did it before him.
Sturridge signed a three-year deal with Trabzonspor back in 2019, a move that felt like a fresh start after injuries and inconsistency had dimmed a once-dazzling career. He scored seven goals in 16 games, flashes of the old sharpness still evident, before the club and player agreed to terminate his contract early. His time in Turkey ended almost as quickly as it began.
Before that, Sturridge had built his reputation in England. A Manchester City academy product, he moved through Chelsea and Bolton before finding his true home at Liverpool. Across six and a half years at Anfield, he hit 67 goals in 160 appearances and formed a devastating partnership with Luis Suárez, a duo that terrorised defences and came agonisingly close to ending Liverpool’s long title wait.
After Trabzonspor, Sturridge headed to Perth Glory for the 2021/22 A-League season, but his body again betrayed him. Fitness issues meant he did not train properly until November, a groin injury in February cut into what remained, and he finished with just six appearances, one start and no goals. Perth’s chief executive Tony Pignata later called the move “disappointing”, and new manager Ruben Zadkovich released him the following June.
Salah now steps onto the same Turkish stage, but from a very different vantage point: not as a player trying to rescue a fading career, but as a global star choosing a new challenge.
Why Trabzon? Why now?
Salah had options. Besiktas were interested. Al-Ittihad, part of the Saudi Pro League’s spending surge, also showed intent. There was noise from Italy too, a league he knows well from his time at Roma and Fiorentina.
He chose Trabzonspor, a club that finished third in the Super Lig last season and is pushing to reach the Europa League for the 2026/27 campaign through the qualifying rounds. It is not the obvious destination for a player of his profile, which is precisely what makes the move so striking.
He could have stayed. His Liverpool deal ran until 2027. Instead, club and player agreed that this summer marked the right moment to part. His final season at Anfield was his poorest by his own high standards, and Liverpool only just clung on to a Champions League spot. The sense of a cycle ending grew with every stuttering performance.
So Salah walks away not pushed, but choosing to close the chapter himself.
A new number, a new identity
At Liverpool, the No. 11 shirt became synonymous with Salah’s left-foot curlers and his arms-outstretched celebrations in front of the Kop. For Egypt, he wears No. 10, the classic playmaker’s number, a symbol of status as much as position.
Neither is available at Trabzonspor.
Ozan Tufan holds No. 11. Ernest Muçi wears No. 10. Salah will not dislodge them. Instead, Trabzonspor have already released images of him in No. 61 – a number that means everything in this part of Turkey.
It is the license plate code for Trabzon, a badge of local pride. In this city, 61 is identity, belonging, and defiance rolled into two digits. For Salah to adopt it is a clear nod to the community he is walking into, a gesture that will not be lost on supporters who see the number as a symbol of who they are.
The shirt choice is not a marketing gimmick. It is a statement: he is not just dropping in for a final payday; he is buying into Trabzon.
From Anfield icon to Black Sea talisman?
The questions now are footballing ones. How much of the old Salah remains? Can he carry a team again, this time in a different league, in a different rhythm, with different demands?
He arrives as a 34-year-old whose last Liverpool season never truly caught fire, but he also arrives as a player whose standards have been freakishly high for almost a decade. Even a “worst” campaign by his metrics still outstrips the career peaks of many forwards.
Trabzonspor, chasing Europa League football and domestic glory, are betting that there is at least one more chapter of elite output left in that left foot. They have seen what Sturridge briefly brought, and how quickly it faded. With Salah, they are gambling on longevity, on star power that can hold for more than a fleeting burst.
For Liverpool, the image is of a legend stepping away just as a new era begins. For Trabzon, it is something else entirely: the arrival of a global icon in their colours, wearing their number, embracing their city.
Sturridge’s Turkish adventure flickered, then died. Salah now steps onto the same stage with a different script and far higher stakes.
