Besiktas Firm on Mohamed Salah Pursuit

Besiktas have made their move for Mohamed Salah – and, according to sporting director Önder Özent, they have no intention of blinking first.

The Istanbul club have tabled a formal offer to the former Liverpool star, who is a free agent after leaving Anfield at the end of last season. The proposal is on Salah’s desk. It will not be improved.

“Besiktas' offer, made on its own terms, is on the table,” Özent told reporters, via Turkish outlet Fanatik. “If a response to this offer comes, it can be evaluated. But Besiktas will not make another offer.”

This is not a soft courtship. It is a firm deadline.

Take-It-or-Leave-It for Salah

Özent made it clear that Besiktas see this as their final position. The club, he stressed, will not stretch beyond what they believe fits their financial structure and identity.

“Our final offer to Salah is the last word -- one that doesn't compromise Besiktas' club identity,” he said.

Salah’s camp, though, are not dealing with Besiktas alone. The Egyptian’s representatives are also in talks with another, unnamed club as he weighs up the next step of his career after a glittering spell at Liverpool.

“They've said they're in talks with another club as well; perhaps they'll reach an agreement there,” Özent admitted, underlining the reality of a high-profile free agent on the market.

Negotiations Stalled by Commission Demands

Besiktas have not been passive observers in this process. Özent revealed that the club met Salah’s side three times, initially without even touching the numbers. Those early conversations went smoothly. The mood changed once money entered the room.

“We met with Salah three times without delving into the financial aspects of the negotiations,” he explained. “Everything was going smoothly up to that point. Once the financial discussions began, the smooth progress seen on the first day started to slow down as of July 21.”

The stumbling block? Commission.

According to Özent, demands emerging from the negotiations threatened both the “flow of information and the financial side,” effectively grinding talks down. He suggested that Salah himself may not have been fully aware of the nature of those requests, stressing his respect for the player.

“Requests began to emerge that would bring both the flow of information and the financial side to a standstill. I can assume that a respected athlete like Salah was unaware of this,” he said.

Club Policy Over Populism

At the heart of Besiktas’ stance is a refusal to break what Özent described as a clear internal policy on commissions and financial conduct. The message from the boardroom is simple: no star, not even one of Salah’s stature, is worth crossing that line.

“The club has a policy, and it cannot deviate from that policy. Our president identified the line he would not cross very clearly and stood his ground,” Özent said. “Management is a legal business; there is a legally established commission rate, and exceeding that would constitute an illegal situation.”

The implication is stark. Besiktas believe certain demands around the deal would push them beyond what is legally or ethically acceptable. For a club that often leans on its sense of identity and supporter culture, Özent framed the decision as a matter of principle.

“When it comes to Beşiktaş, avoiding such a situation is a requirement of being a Besiktas supporter,” he added. “The president, by not making a populist decision, has 'stepped away from the table for now.'”

So the offer sits there: unchanged, unapologetic, and finite. The next move belongs to Mohamed Salah – and perhaps to the mystery club on the other side of the negotiating table.