Mohamed Salah's Transfer Saga: Trabzonspor Takes the Lead Over Besiktas

For weeks, it looked like the story was written. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s modern icon, was set to swap Anfield for Istanbul and begin a new life in the black and white of Besiktas.

Then Saturday arrived, and the script was ripped up.

Liverpool Legend at a Crossroads

Liverpool and Salah agreed earlier this summer that their era together was over. One year still sat on his contract, a deal that paid him around £400,000 a week and once felt like a bargain for a winger who shredded defences and rewrote club record books.

Last season changed the mood. The goals slowed. The assists dipped. When the end product dried up, the rest of Salah’s game came under harsher scrutiny. His defensive work, long tolerated because of his outrageous attacking output, suddenly looked like a luxury Liverpool could no longer indulge.

The club chose a new direction. Salah, at 32 and with nothing left to prove on Merseyside, needed a new stage.

Saudi Arabia circled. MLS watched. But Besiktas moved.

They tabled a firm proposal, pushed hardest, and for a while were seen as the clear favourites. A new star for a club desperate to reclaim domestic dominance; a marquee signing for a league that thrives on big names in the twilight of their European careers. The fit made sense.

Until Trabzonspor walked through the door.

Trabzonspor Crash the Party

On Saturday morning, French reporter Santi Aouna and respected Turkish journalist Yağız Sabuncuoğlu delivered the same message: Besiktas’ move for Salah had been hijacked.

Sabuncuoğlu, who has a strong track record on Turkish transfers, revealed that Trabzonspor had met Salah’s representative and placed an official offer on the table.

The numbers are striking.

A two-year contract. A salary of €17 million per season. That’s roughly £280,000 a week — less than he earned at Liverpool, but still elite money and a clear signal of intent from a club willing to stretch itself for a global star.

Sabuncuoğlu added that Salah’s agent had already relayed the full details of the proposal to the player. The early response? Positive. Salah, he reported, is “positively inclined” towards Trabzonspor’s offer and will now consult with his family before making a final decision.

The pressure told instantly elsewhere.

Besiktas Forced to Step Back

Aouna’s update sharpened the picture. Trabzonspor, he reported, are now close to reaching a full agreement with Salah after entering advanced talks with his agent. The momentum, once firmly with Besiktas, has swung decisively to the Black Sea club.

The impact on Besiktas has been brutal and immediate.

Despite already having a verbal agreement with Salah’s camp — a 1+1-year deal worth €10m net per season plus €2m in bonuses — Besiktas have officially suspended negotiations. The club that thought it had Salah within reach has been pushed to the sidelines while its rival moves in for the kill.

From Besiktas’ perspective, this is a gut punch. They had the framework of a contract, the player’s initial approval, and a clear vision of Salah as the centrepiece of their project. Now they are watching, powerless, as a domestic rival attempts to close a deal that would reshape the balance of star power in Turkish football.

A New Power Play in Turkey

For Trabzonspor, this is more than a transfer. It is a statement.

Luring a player of Salah’s stature — fresh from a decade at the sharp end of European football, a Champions League and Premier League winner, a global figure — would be a thunderclap moment. It would send a message to the rest of the league that the Black Sea club are not content to sit in the shadow of Istanbul’s giants.

For Salah, the decision is more nuanced. The money is strong, the contract short enough to keep his options open, and the role clear: instant talisman, instant leader, instant face of the project.

He has listened. He is tempted. Now he weighs the move with his family.

Besiktas wait, wounded. Trabzonspor push, sensing history. And Salah, for the first time in years, stands on the brink of a choice that will define the final act of his European career.

Does he step into the cauldron of Trabzon and become the symbol of a club daring to dream bigger than ever, or does this late twist have one more turn left in it?