Trabzonspor Reject Fatih Tekke's Resignation After Europa League Exit
Trabzonspor have turned down the “emotional” resignation of head coach Fatih Tekke after their Europa League collapse, keeping faith with the man who dragged them back towards the summit of Turkish football.
Tekke offered to walk away on Thursday night after a brutal 4-0 defeat to Ferencvaros in Hungary, a result that sealed a 5-0 aggregate loss in the play-off round and dumped the Super Lig side out of the competition before the league phase.
The reaction was immediate. And raw.
Tekke, who guided Trabzonspor to third place in Turkey last season, tendered his resignation in the aftermath of the defeat. By Friday morning, the club had made its stance clear: they were not accepting it. In a statement, they said the 48-year-old’s decision came from the “intense emotional impact” of the Europa League exit, and not from a considered, long-term view of his position.
So Tekke stays. The European journey, though, changes course.
Dropped from the Europa League, Trabzonspor will now move into the Europa Conference League this season. They will discover their six opponents for the league phase on Friday, a different stage than they had imagined when they rebuilt their squad in the summer – but still a platform on which to prove themselves.
And what a rebuild it has been.
The seven-time Turkish champions have made some of the most eye-catching moves of the window, headlined by the stunning arrival of Mohamed Salah. A Premier League and Champions League winner with Liverpool, Salah joined as a free agent after mutually agreeing to terminate his contract at Anfield at the end of last season.
At 34, Salah chose Trabzon over a raft of other options, a decision that sent a jolt through European football. He left Liverpool as the club’s third-highest scorer of all time, with 257 goals in 442 appearances since arriving from Roma in 2017, behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in the Reds’ record books.
He has wasted little time making his mark in Turkey. Salah scored his first two goals for Trabzonspor in a 2-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir on Saturday, a reminder of his enduring sharpness and a glimpse of what he could yet bring to a side trying to steady itself after a European setback.
Salah is not the only marquee name in this reshaped squad. Fabinho, another Premier League winner, has joined to anchor midfield, while Andre Onana has returned to the club on loan from Manchester United, adding high-level experience in goal.
The contrast is stark. A squad packed with elite talent, yet humbled 5-0 on aggregate in a Europa League play-off. A coach who felt the full weight of that failure, only for his resignation to be pushed back across the desk.
Trabzonspor have chosen continuity over panic. With Salah already scoring, big names settling in, and the Europa Conference League on the horizon, Tekke now has to show that one disastrous night in Hungary will not define their season.
