Mohamed Salah's Move to Trabzonspor: Besiktas Stunned by Hijack
For weeks, it looked simple. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool legend, record-breaker, serial match-winner, was heading for a late-career adventure with Besiktas. The money was good, the stage was big, the story neat.
Then Saturday arrived, and the script was ripped up.
Liverpool’s parting of ways
Liverpool and Salah had already made their call. One year still sat on his enormous Anfield contract, worth around £400,000 a week, but both sides agreed the time had come to split. Not in bitterness, not in scandal, just a cold, footballing decision.
For years, Salah had been the luxury you gladly paid for. He scored and assisted at a rate that made his wage packet feel like a bargain. Defending? Pressing? You lived with the flaws because the numbers were outrageous.
Last season, that calculation changed. The goals slowed, the assists dipped, and suddenly the lack of defensive graft wasn’t a quirk, it was a problem. Liverpool decided to move in a new direction. Salah, at 32, needed a new stage.
Besiktas line it up… and then it unravels
Saudi Arabia circled. MLS made eyes. But Besiktas were the ones who actually moved. They put a firm offer on the table, pushed hard and early, and looked to have won the race. A fresh chapter in Istanbul, a marquee arrival to light up the Süper Lig.
Then came the twist.
On Saturday morning, reports from French journalist Santi Aouna and respected Turkish reporter Yağız Sabuncuoğlu dropped the bombshell: Besiktas’ move was being hijacked — by Trabzonspor.
Suddenly, what had seemed a done deal became a tug-of-war.
Trabzonspor step in with a heavyweight offer
Sabuncuoğlu revealed that Trabzonspor had met Salah’s representative and gone straight to the point with an official offer: a two-year contract, €17 million per season.
Roughly £280,000 a week. Not Liverpool money, but serious money for Turkey, and a clear signal of intent.
The talks moved quickly. Sabuncuoğlu reported that Salah’s representative had already called the player and laid out the details. The reaction from Salah’s side? Positive. Not a guarantee, not a signature, but a clear openness to the Trabzon project.
He will now speak with his family and make the final call. At this stage of his career, that matters as much as the numbers on the contract.
Besiktas forced to slam the brakes
While Trabzonspor pushed forward, Besiktas were left exposed. They had already reached a verbal agreement with Salah’s camp over a 1+1-year deal worth €10 million net per season, plus €2 million in bonuses. Respectable terms, but suddenly not the best on the table.
According to Aouna, as Trabzonspor advanced negotiations with Salah’s agent and closed in on a full agreement, Besiktas reacted by officially suspending talks. Not cancelled. Not dead. Just frozen — and clearly on the back foot.
From frontrunners to bystanders in a matter of hours.
A new stage for a fading icon?
So the picture is now stark. Liverpool and Salah have agreed to part. Besiktas thought they had their man. Trabzonspor have arrived late and heavy, with a richer, cleaner two-year proposal and a clear belief they can build around one of the modern game’s great forwards.
The decision rests with Salah: Istanbul and Besiktas, or a dramatic turn to Trabzon and a club ready to make him their centrepiece.
After everything he’s done in England, the next move will define the closing act of his European career.
