No Disrespect to Trabzonspor, but What Could Possibly Make them the Best Option for Mo Salah?!

Mo Salah is Going to Trabzonspor... Why?!

I would like to preface this article by saying to all the Trabzonspor fans out there please do not hate me, I mean no disrespect, I am simply a little bit shocked by the recent signing of Liverpool and Egyptian Icon Mo Salah.

Surely I cannot be the only one that is very confused by the signing from Salah's perspective, I mean it makes total sense for Trabzonspor as the signing of Salah will elevate the club tenfold.

But for Salah himself there were better moves that he could have very easily made and in fact were on the cards.

So I'm going to analyse some of these other potential moves and rumours to try and establish why on earth he's ended up at Trabzonspor and what the benefits could be.

🚨💣 BREAKING: Mo Salah to Trabzonspor, here we go! Club confirms agreement in place for the Egyptian striker.

Salah joins on two year deal as free agent after leaving Liverpool. pic.twitter.com/JhILAobRvE

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 4, 2026

Bigger Turkish Clubs Available

So it's hardly a secret that Turkish clubs have been going on spending sprees so far this summer and frankly for the last few seasons.

This mainly though has been restricted to the 'big three' which is of course Galatasaray, Besiktas and Fenerbahçe.

In the league if Salah was to join one of these three he would've been able to play alongside some familiar Premier League and Champions League talents with talent like Nathan Ake, Leroy Sane, Victor Osimhen and most recently Premier League Champion Leandro Trossard making the switch to the Super Lig.

Salah actively had negotiations ongoing with Besiktas and for a long while the side in black and white were considered front runners for the Egyptian's signature but for whatever reason that wasn't finalised.

What cannot be debated however is that all of the other 3 sides would've provided better options for him in terms of still competing at the top level, Trabzonspor are in the play-offs for qualification to the Europa League at the end of the day which is hardly how you'd image the swan song of Salah's career going.

Weirdest part about the Salah transfer is this dude's not even gonna live in Istanbul. Trabzon is a 12 hour drive???

— Bd@irB@ll (@Bd_irB_ll) August 4, 2026

International Offers

Most of the news around Salah's eventual departing of Liverpool was surrounding a move to Saudi Arabia and this was the most anticipated solution.

Competitively there is an argument to be made that Trabzonspor are a better place to compete closer to the top level but with how fast the Saudi League is growing Salah's personal brand could've reached even higher heights, not to mention the salary he would've been bringing in.

Aside from Saudi and Turkiye though there were rumours of some European giants being interested in his signature such as Juventus.

Now if Juventus were to have been a realistic option for Salah that might have been the dream.

He would've been the face of another European giant and been able to continue at the highest possible level with being one of the favourites for the Europa League and the Serie A, a league in which he has already made a name for himself in by the way.

Even the settling in period would have been easier at Juventus as he is accustomed to Italian life and I would image has some of the language nailed on.

🚨🇪🇬 Trabzonspor's new signing Mohamed Salah: "I honestly can't even remember if I've seen something like this before. I'm very happy to be here. There are 25,000 fans, it's UNBELIEVABLE!" 🤯❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/ANKwqYGxAR

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) August 5, 2026

The Positives of Trabzonspor

Ok it's not all negatives about the move, as much as he could've stayed at a higher competitive level for more money and more of a personal brand boost there are some aspects of the move that make sense.

For starters, he will still be playing in the Europa League it seems assuming that the club win the qualifiers, which may not be the top flight of European football but to win it would still go down as a major achievement in his career.

In relation to the wage packet it has been rumoured that he has signed a roughly £14 million a year deal with the Turkish club so it's hardly like he's going to be struggling for money in accepting the move.

It may not be the one anyone expected and there may well have been significant other opportunities that would've made more sense however there is a logic in Salah to Trabzonspor and one that we will be eager to see how it pans out.

Mohamed Salah, evimiz Papara Park’ta 👑🔥 pic.twitter.com/3PY16cgr29

— Trabzonspor (@Trabzonspor) August 6, 2026