Mohamed Salah's Unexpected Move to Trabzonspor
Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool story is over. Not with a final flourish at the Kop end, not with a farewell tour, but with a quiet exit and a striking twist: a move to Trabzonspor, on a free, at 34.
Nine years at Anfield, gone in a line on a press release. A new chapter on the Black Sea.
From Anfield icon to Turkish gamble
Salah has arrived in Turkey and is on the brink of signing for Trabzonspor after leaving Liverpool this summer. The medical and paperwork are still to come, but the destination is set. Besiktas wanted him. Al-Ittihad had him on their radar. There were glances from Italy as well. None of that stuck.
He chose Trabzonspor. A club that finished third in the Super Lig last season. A club that, if it survives the qualifying rounds, will step into the Europa League in the 2026/27 campaign. A club that has made a habit of tempting former Premier League names to the northeast of Turkey.
Liverpool, for their part, could have kept him for another year. His contract ran until 2027. But player and club agreed the time had come. After a final season that was, by his standards and Liverpool’s, flat. The Reds only just clung on to a Champions League spot. The numbers, the aura, the sense of inevitability that used to surround Salah all dimmed.
So he walks away now, not pushed, not quite pulled, but guided by the feeling that the peak had passed.
Following a familiar trail: the Sturridge precedent
If the destination feels unusual for a player of Salah’s stature, the path is not entirely new. Daniel Sturridge walked it first.
The former Liverpool striker signed a three-year deal with Trabzonspor in 2019. It looked like a reset, a chance to rediscover the ruthless finisher who once formed half of the Premier League’s most feared front line alongside Luis Suarez. In flashes, he did. Seven goals in 16 appearances hinted at a revival.
Then it stopped. Club and player agreed to terminate his contract early, ending a brief, stuttering spell in Turkey.
Sturridge’s journey had already taken in Manchester City, Chelsea, Bolton, Liverpool and West Brom. At Anfield he scored 67 goals in 160 games, a tally that should be remembered more than the injuries that followed. Yet injuries defined the back end of his career, and they followed him out of England.
After Trabzonspor, he tried again with Perth Glory in the A-League for the 2021/22 season. It never got going. Fitness problems delayed his first training session until November. A groin injury in February cut into what little rhythm he had. Perth’s chief executive Tony Pignata later called the move “disappointing”. Six appearances, one start, no goals, and then the new manager, Ruben Zadkovich, let him go the following June.
For Salah, the echo is obvious: a Liverpool forward, adored at Anfield, choosing Trabzon as the next stop. The similarities end there. Sturridge arrived needing to prove his body could still cope. Salah arrives as a player whose output dipped but whose durability has rarely been in question.
A new number, a new city, a different kind of symbolism
At Liverpool, Salah’s No. 11 became part of the club’s modern identity. For Egypt, he wears No. 10. At Trabzonspor, neither is available. Ozan Tufan has 11. Ernest Muci has 10.
So Salah will wear 61.
For most of the football world, it is just a number. In Trabzon, it means something. It is the city’s licence plate code, a badge of local pride. Trabzonspor have already released images of Salah in the 61 shirt, a clear nod to the region and its people. The choice speaks to a player who understands how to connect with a fanbase, how to lean into a club’s culture rather than simply pass through it.
He will not be the superstar in red on a global stage anymore. He will be the marquee arrival in a coastal city that lives and breathes its football in a different way. The pressure will be intense, but of a different flavour: less about global scrutiny, more about local expectation.
The end of one era, the risk of another
Salah could have stayed at Liverpool and eased into the twilight of his career in familiar surroundings. Instead, he has chosen something more volatile. A new league, a new environment, a club fighting to punch above its weight domestically and in Europe.
His final season at Anfield was his poorest in a Liverpool shirt, a campaign that underlined how much the team around him had shifted. The blistering, high-pressing, title-chasing machine of his early years had given way to a side scrambling for Champions League qualification. The timing of his departure reflects that reality.
Now he steps into a league where his name alone will tilt stadiums, where every touch will be judged against the memory of the player who terrorised defences in England and Europe.
Sturridge went to Trabzon hoping to restart a career derailed by injury. Salah arrives trying to reframe a legacy that had begun to feel static. One left Turkey with regrets and what-ifs. The other walks in with a different question hanging over him.
Can a 34-year-old who once defined Liverpool’s modern era still bend a new club, and a new league, to his will?
