Hafid Derradji Critiques Salah's Trabzonspor Move: A Step Down
Mohamed Salah’s first steps in Turkish football have already sparked a storm of opinion, and not from just any voice. Algerian commentator Hafid Derradji has taken direct aim at the Egyptian star’s decision to join Trabzonspor, arguing that a player of his stature should still be operating at the very top tier of European competition.
The former Liverpool forward made his debut for the Black Sea club in their opening league match of the season against Kasimpasa, coming off the bench in the 59th minute. The game finished 1-1. The result was quickly forgotten. Salah’s choice of destination was not.
Derradji went public with his frustration on Facebook after that first appearance. “What a shame,” he wrote, framing the move as a step down for a player who, in his view, still has several elite years left in his legs. For Derradji, this was not about nostalgia for Liverpool or sentimentality over past glories. It was about level. About ambition.
In his eyes, Salah could have stayed at the summit of the European game, choosing a club whose technical demands and competitive environment matched the status he built at Anfield. Derradji pointed to Turkey’s traditional heavyweights, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, as the kind of stage that would have offered fiercer domestic competition, relentless pressure and a stronger footprint in European tournaments.
Trabzonspor are no minnows. They command serious support, carry weight in Turkish football and possess real financial muscle. Their fanbase is passionate, their expectations high. Yet Derradji still views the move as a mismatch between club and player when judged purely on technical and competitive grounds. For him, Salah’s Liverpool legacy – years of decisive goals, individual awards and global recognition – put him in the bracket of world football’s biggest names. His new home, he suggests, does not quite reflect that.
The criticism has not veered into dismissal of Salah’s talent. Derradji has been careful on that front. He stressed that the forward “hasn’t lost his shine” and remains a major figure in the sport. The issue, as he frames it, lies not in what Salah is now, but in what he could still be facing week after week: a bigger challenge, a harsher spotlight, a more demanding platform for the final chapters of his career.
That tension is exactly why the transfer has drawn such intense scrutiny. Salah’s move to Trabzonspor was always going to be a headline-maker. After his eventful, trophy-laden spell at Liverpool, every decision he takes is dissected by fans, pundits and commentators across continents. He is still a commercial force, still a sporting icon, still a player whose next step feels like a statement.
This time, Derradji believes, the statement falls short of the level Salah himself created. Whether the Egyptian proves him wrong on the pitch, in the claret and blue of Trabzonspor, is now the question that will follow every touch, every goal, every European night that may or may not come.
