Mohamed Salah's Unexpected Move to Trabzonspor: A New Chapter
Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool story is over. After nine years, 211 goals and a place carved into Anfield folklore, the Egyptian forward has chosen an unexpected next chapter: Trabzonspor.
Not Saudi Arabia. Not Serie A. Not another Premier League run. Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
From Anfield icon to free agent gamble
Salah has arrived in Turkey and is on the verge of completing a free transfer to Trabzonspor after leaving Liverpool this summer. The formalities remain — a medical, a signature — but the decision is made. He will not see out the final years of a Liverpool contract that ran until 2027. Club and player agreed this was the moment to walk away.
The market knew his situation. Besiktas asked the question. Al-Ittihad, armed with Saudi wealth, explored the possibility. There was interest from Italy, where his early European career took flight. Salah could have chased one more giant contract, one more superclub spotlight.
He chose something else.
Trabzonspor finished third in the Super Lig last season. They are not guaranteed European football yet; they still have to fight through qualifying to reach the Europa League for the 2026/27 campaign. This is not a comfort move into a ready-made Champions League dressing room. It is a step into a fierce, football-obsessed city that lives through its club.
Following a familiar Liverpool trail
If the destination feels left-field, the route is not entirely new. Salah is following a path once taken by Daniel Sturridge.
Sturridge swapped Liverpool for Trabzonspor in 2019, signing a three-year deal and arriving with his own history of big moments at Anfield. His time in Turkey flickered rather than burned: seven goals in 16 appearances, flashes of the old sharpness, but no lasting legacy. Club and player mutually agreed to terminate his contract early, ending his spell in Trabzon before it ever truly settled.
His career had already taken in Manchester City, Chelsea, Bolton, Liverpool and West Brom. At Anfield he formed one of the Premier League’s most devastating partnerships with Luis Suarez, scoring 67 goals in 160 games across six and a half years. The move to Turkey was supposed to be a revival. It became another turning point.
After Trabzonspor, Sturridge headed to Perth Glory for the 2021/22 A-League season, only to find the same old enemy waiting: injury. Fitness issues meant his first training session did not come until November. A groin problem in February cut into what little rhythm he had built. Perth’s chief executive Tony Pignata later called the move “disappointing”. Six appearances. One start. No goals. New manager Ruben Zadkovich released him the following June.
Salah arrives at the same club with a very different recent history, but with the echo of Sturridge’s short stay as a reminder: reputation alone does not guarantee a soft landing in Trabzon.
A new number, a new identity
At Liverpool, Salah’s No. 11 became a symbol. It was on the back of the shirt when he tore through Premier League defences, when he bent the Champions League to his will, when he turned into one of the defining forwards of his generation.
He cannot have it at Trabzonspor. Ozan Tufan wears 11 there. The No. 10 he uses for Egypt is also taken, by Ernest Muci.
So Salah has gone local.
Trabzonspor have already released images of him in the No. 61 shirt — a number that carries far more weight in the city than it might suggest to outsiders. It is Trabzon’s license plate code, a numeric shorthand for local pride and identity. For supporters, 61 is not just a squad number; it is a badge of belonging.
The choice is deliberate. In a place where football is tied tightly to regional identity, Salah has picked the number that speaks directly to the streets around the stadium.
Leaving on a low, remembered for the highs
The timing of his Liverpool exit is striking. On paper, Salah could have stayed another year and beyond. His deal ran until 2027. Yet his final campaign was comfortably his least convincing in a red shirt. Liverpool stumbled, only just dragging themselves over the line to secure a Champions League place. Salah still produced moments, but the relentless edge that once defined him dulled.
For a player who built his name on ruthless standards, there is a certain logic in leaving now rather than drifting into a slow decline at the club where he became a superstar.
The contrast with his peak years is stark. At his best, Salah felt inevitable — cutting in from the right, defenders backpedalling, the net bulging. Now he steps into a different reality: a new league, a new culture, a club desperate to close the gap at the top of Turkish football and to make a dent in Europe if they can navigate the qualifiers.
A different kind of challenge
Trabzonspor are not signing a project. They are signing a 34-year-old with a legendary CV and a point to prove. The Super Lig will test his legs, the atmosphere will test his nerve, and the expectation will test everything else.
Sturridge’s story in Trabzon serves as a warning of how quickly things can unravel. Salah’s reputation gives him a larger margin for error, but not an endless one. In a city where the number 61 is a symbol of pride, the man wearing it will be judged quickly.
He has traded the familiarity of Anfield for the intensity of a football city on the Black Sea, swapped the iconic red 11 for a number that belongs to Trabzon itself.
Now the question is simple: can one of Liverpool’s greatest modern forwards turn that local symbol into the next defining chapter of his career, or will 61 become the number that marks the beginning of his fade from the elite stage?
