How Mohamed Salah was convinced to join Trabzonspor
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Trabzonspor convinced Mohamed Salah with their unique football culture and fan passion.
- Salah will earn €17m a year plus 20% of shirt sales bearing his name.
- The transfer has already driven season-ticket sales and global interest in the club.
The reception Salah received in the days leading up to the ceremony had already convinced DoÄŸan that Trabzonspor had pulled off one of the biggest transfer coups in its history.
For the president, Salah's influence extends well beyond the football pitch.
Speaking to the BBC Africa, DoÄŸan said:
He's the biggest Muslim footballer in the world. He's an influential role model.The bigger question, however, is how Trabzonspor managed to persuade a player of Salah's stature to join a club without Champions League football and with only one Turkish league title since their glory years in the 1970s and early 1980s.
We held Salah's signing ceremony in front of 35,000 people. It was clear from everything he did that he felt that love, and he told us as much too. He thanked us.
The answer, according to DoÄŸan, was Trabzon itself.
Salah chose passion over prestige
Trabzon is a Black Sea city in north-eastern Turkey, close to the Georgian border. With a population of roughly 800,000, it is not among Turkey's largest urban centres.For DoÄŸan, however, the city's size misses the point.
I always say this about Trabzonspor and the city - we're the biggest one-club city in the world.That identity became one of the club's most important selling points when Salah asked why he should choose Trabzonspor at this stage of his career.
The answer was simple: the supporters.
DoÄŸan told Salah that he would experience a level of genuine affection unlike anything he had encountered elsewhere.
We told him about the city and said, "You can be sure you will meet a group of supporters unlike any you have experienced before. You'll feel the genuine love those people have inside them."It was a pitch based less on trophies or financial power and more on belonging.
For Trabzonspor, that appears to have worked.
Salah's salary is enormous but the club see more than wages
Salah's reported contract is worth €17 million per year, plus 20% of merchandise sales featuring his name.On the surface, that is an enormous financial commitment for a club of Trabzonspor's size.
DoÄŸan, however, argues that the transfer should not be judged solely on Salah's salary.
The attention it has generated and the level of engagement it has created around the world cannot easily be given a direct financial value.Yet the early commercial impact is already visible.
Purely from a financial perspective, this transfer has no direct return as such.
Trabzonspor increased season-ticket prices after Salah's arrival. The club had initially targeted 25,000 season-ticket sales but now expects to pass 30,000.
DoÄŸan also claims that almost 70% of Salah's salary for the year was covered by season-ticket sales made during the first four or five days after his arrival was announced.
That figure illustrates why Trabzonspor believe the signing can be more than a sporting gamble.
The club have also attracted interest from major companies seeking to become involved in what DoÄŸan described as "Salah-mania," with talks taking place in Turkey, Europe and the Arab world.
How the Salah transfer happened
Trabzonspor had been interested in Salah since the 2026 FIFA World Cup, according to DoÄŸan, but the club knew the Egyptian was also considering alternatives.Saudi Arabian clubs appeared a natural destination, whilst a move to Major League Soccer would have mirrored Lionel Messi's decision to continue his career in the United States.
There was also interest from other Turkish clubs.
DoÄŸan explained that Trabzonspor had to wait whilst Salah was in discussions elsewhere, citing an unwritten understanding in Turkish football that clubs generally wait until another side have withdrawn before pursuing the same player.
Once the other interested clubs pulled out, Trabzonspor moved quickly.
The initial meeting took place over Zoom, with both sides using it simply to get to know one another.
Salah was then on holiday in Mykonos, so the negotiations continued remotely before Trabzonspor eventually brought him to Istanbul for his medical.
Trabzonspor wanted Salah to see the reaction for himself
The decision to conduct Salah's medical in Istanbul was deliberate.DoÄŸan wanted the 34-year-old to experience first-hand the reception he could expect in Turkey.
When Salah arrived at the airport, thousands of supporters turned out to greet him despite it being the middle of a working day.
It was a preview of what followed at Papara Park.
The size of the crowd for his presentation underlined just how significant the signing was for Trabzonspor, and how deeply football is woven into the identity of the city.
🎥❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/aStIqmsTp9
— Trabzonspor (@Trabzonspor) August 6, 2026
Salah has already made Trabzonspor debut
The Egyptian did not have to wait long to make his first appearance.Salah came off the bench in the second half of Trabzonspor's 1-1 draw with Kasimpasa in Istanbul on the opening weekend of the new league season.
His first home league appearance in Trabzon is expected to be an altogether different occasion.
For DoÄŸan, the excitement surrounding Salah is not simply about a famous player arriving in town. It is about what happens when one of football's biggest stars becomes part of a community whose identity is built around its club.
The whole city lives for football.That is ultimately the gamble Trabzonspor have taken.
Everywhere you go, on every corner, the city gives that player that energy and that happiness.
The club could not offer Salah Champions League football or the recent trophy record of Europe's elite. Instead, they offered something considerably harder to manufacture: an entire city ready to make him feel at home.
And judging by the scenes surrounding his arrival, Salah has already discovered exactly what Trabzonspor promised.
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