Beşiktaş President Adalı Clarifies Mohamed Salah Transfer Situation

Serdal Adalı leans in: “We did not want the Mohamed Salah deal, and this must be clear to everyone.”

The Beşiktaş president has finally broken his silence on the transfer that has gripped Turkish football all summer, drawing a hard line under the narrative that his club were beaten to Mohamed Salah by Trabzonspor.

According to Adalı, there was no race to lose.

“We were never in for Salah”

Speaking to several Turkish outlets, including A Spor, Adalı pushed back against the idea that Beşiktaş had chased the Egypt captain and come up short.

“We did not sign him, but not because we lost the deal or were unable to bring him in, that talk is not true,” he said, insisting the club had simply never placed Salah on their agenda.

The story, in his eyes, spiralled from a misunderstanding of comments made by coach Onder.

“The coach explained the matter in a clear and respectful way when he said: ‘At the present time’, but his words were understood incorrectly,” Adalı complained. A simple clarification, he argued, was twisted into drama. “We could simply have announced then that we had withdrawn from the negotiations, but the matter was portrayed as if we were a party to the deal and then another club came and snatched the player, and that is not true and it bothers me.”

The message is blunt: Beşiktaş did not lose Salah to Trabzonspor. They never truly stepped onto that pitch.

“No one has snatched a player from us”

Adalı’s defence of the club’s transfer strategy did not stop there. Since taking office, he believes Beşiktaş have operated from a position of strength, not hesitation.

“Since I took on the responsibility, no one has been able to snatch away any player we wanted to sign,” he stated. It was both a rebuttal to the Salah narrative and a reminder of the authority he feels he has brought to the role.

He also moved quickly to cool any suggestion of tension with Trabzonspor.

“Our relationship with Trabzonspor is also good, and nothing of this kind could happen between the two clubs,” he said, pushing back against the idea of a bitter tug-of-war.

For Adalı, the noise belongs to the transfer market. The substance, he insists, will come later.

“Our deals are going as we planned them, and new players will join us starting next week,” he revealed. “In the end, what will decide matters is what happens on the pitch, while the transfer hype only lasts a few days.”

The subtext is clear: judge this Beşiktaş by results, not by rumours.

Trossard, licences and a misunderstood look

Adalı also moved to tidy up another loose thread from a turbulent window: the situation of Belgian forward Leandro Trossard.

“There is no problem regarding Trossard's licence, the matter was resolved last night, and we are waiting for the documents to arrive from England,” he confirmed. The forward will miss the first match, but the club expects him to be available quickly. “He will not be ready for the first match, but we hope he will feature in the second.”

Even Trossard’s unveiling had become part of the Salah storm. As fans chanted Salah’s name during the Belgian’s presentation, cameras caught Adalı’s expression and social media did the rest.

“Everyone talked about the look on my face, but honestly I did not hear what the fans were chanting at that moment,” he said, dismissing the idea that his reaction betrayed frustration over losing Salah.

For him, the narrative had been built on a glance and a guess.

“As time passes, the picture will become clear”

Adalı closed with one more firm denial and a hint that there was more to the Salah saga than met the eye.

“Much was said based on my facial expressions, as if we had lost the deal, but his move was not part of our plans,” he insisted. The real sticking point, he suggested, lay away from Beşiktaş.

“The player's agent did things we had not been accustomed to before, and I think everything went in the end as it should,” he added. “As time passes the picture will become clear, and everyone will understand why this deal was not completed.”

For now, Salah is at Trabzonspor, Beşiktaş are moving on with their own recruits, and Adalı has drawn his line in the sand.

The next verdict will not come from a press conference or a chant in the stands. It will come when the ball starts rolling and the transfer noise fades into the background.