When Mohamed Salah stepped off a private jet in Istanbul wearing a burgundy-blue Trabzonspor shirt, thousands of chanting fans were waiting outside the terminal. In Egypt, however, many were trying to make sense of his surprise move.
By Wednesday evening, around 25,000 people had descended on Trabzon airport, greeting him with flares, fireworks and cries of “Ya Allah, Bismillah, Mohamed Salah”. Even Salah, a veteran of nine years at Anfield, looked stunned. “There are 25,000 people here, this is unbelievable,” he told a local outlet. “I have never seen anything like this.”
The 34-year-old left Liverpool this summer after a mutual agreement to end his contract a year early, following a difficult final season that included a public fallout with head coach Arne Slot, who has since been sacked.
But among his Egyptian fan base, the same word keeps returning: baffling.
One fan, 37, seeking to make sense of the move, said that “Salah wanted to go to a medium-calibre club and become a superstar there.”
In comparison with “weaker players”, he will be the “undoubted superstar of the team and will bring the world's attention to the team”.
“It's a win-win for both sides. Still, it doesn't seem like the best decision, in my opinion,” the fan said.
Ahmad, 51, disagreed. Salah is already a superstar, he said, and does not need to resort to comparing himself to weaker players because “it's not like he was unknown while he was in Liverpool”.
Trabzonspor were not the only Turkish suitor. Besiktas had been the front-runner for most of July, but the deal collapsed acrimoniously. The Istanbul club later accused Salah's team of failing to negotiate in good faith. Local outlets reported that his agent, Ramy Abbas, demanded 50 per cent of the club's Salah-related sales in Turkey.
Trabzonspor then moved in and put together a compromise: a two-year deal worth €17 million ($19.6 million) a season, a €5 million signing bonus, and – most unusually – a reported 20 per cent to 25 per cent share of revenue from all merchandise carrying Salah's name.
For Ahmad, who refused to give his full name, that clause was what tipped the scales.
“To me this is purely a business decision,” he said. “Salah is coming off a great performance in the World Cup, and his team obviously wanted to ride that wave.
“Besiktas accused Salah's team of asking for too large a cut of international shirt sales. This says that shirt sales matter to Salah. He would have gotten nothing compared to what they offer him in Trabzonspor in Liverpool or a similar club. His team understands that he is now more of a brand than a player.”
“Salah 11" shirts made up 42 per cent of all Liverpool jerseys sold in 2021, and 128,000 were snatched up in the 48 hours after last season's kit launch. But the player himself never saw a percentage of those profits.
This has led some fans to speculate whether, now that he is arguably past his prime, he is looking for more financially lucrative deals.
Growing interest
In Saudi Arabia, the money is bigger, but the brand ceiling is lower. In Turkey, sitting at the edge of a vast Arab market that already consumes Salah merchandise informally, the merchandising bet has a plausible upside.
“I would have much preferred him to stay in the Premier League and the Champions League; to me that's where he belongs. He is a star and should be with other stars,” a 27-year-old fan told The National.
“Nobody knows what's going through his mind and many like me are wondering whether something personal happened between him and Arne Slot,” said another fan.
“But what baffles me even more is if you're going to drop the calibre of the league you're playing, why not go with a Saudi team? He'd at least be making more money.”
The Egyptian team's World Cup success had led to widespread interest in their players.
Haissem Hassan, the 24-year-old Real Oviedo winger, has been tracked by Liverpool, Celtic and Marseille after his display against Argentina.
Barcelona have signed 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim on a permanent deal through to 2029. Ibrahim Adel's loan at Nordsaelland has been made permanent.
Al Ahly midfielder Emam Ashour, meanwhile, has drawn interest from Celtic, West Ham and Brighton, while goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir is being watched by Aston Villa, Valencia, Girona and Benfica.
For some, that widening market for younger Egyptian names casts an uncomfortable light on Salah's own trajectory.
“The fact that Liverpool have approached Haissem Hassan means that they are interested in younger Egyptian talent right now and are not looking to tie themselves to Salah, who might be seen as past his prime,” one fan said. “Maybe his numbers weren't up to standard; we don't know the whole story, which is really frustrating.”
