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Trabzonspor supporters may have on-loan goalkeeper André Onana to credit for Mohamed Salah becoming what could be the most significant signing in the club's 59-year existence.
Despite prior interest from the Saudi Pro League and reported connections with MLS side Sporting Kansas City in recent weeks, Salah had appeared headed for Türkiye. Beşiktaş failed to nail down the financial details with the former Liverpool star, yet he will still feature in the Süper Lig after Trabzonspor secured a two-year deal.
Salah, as he does with Egypt, will don the No. 10 jersey.
Having lost his starting spot at Manchester United—first briefly to Altay Bayındır and then permanently to Senne Lammens—Onana spent the previous campaign with Trabzonspor and extended that loan arrangement into a second year shortly after the 2025–26 season concluded.
The Daily Mail reports that Onana personally reached out to Salah and, in what have been described as "secret talks," delivered a "compelling" case to the 34-year-old free agent. Those conversations have been characterized as "significant" in shaping Salah's ultimate decision to join the club.
Onana wasn't alone in his efforts, as Egyptian international teammate Trézéguet—who was under contract at Trabzonspor from 2022 to 2025—also made his own personal "pitch" to Salah.
Why Did Mohamed Salah Sign for Trabzonspor?
Reports suggest Salah will earn approximately $39 million across his two seasons in Türkiye, provided he sees out the full contract—something that did not happen at Liverpool.
That figure falls short of the $28 million per season he was set to receive at Anfield following the new agreement signed in April 2025, but—according to the Mail—it still surpassed anything on the table from clubs in western Europe's elite leagues.
Beyond the financial incentive, however, there is a sporting project that is believed to have played a meaningful role in Salah's decision to join Trabzonspor.
Trabzonspor considers itself Türkiye's fourth-largest club, sitting behind the Istanbul trio of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, and Beşiktaş—who have collectively claimed 61 of the 70 Turkish league titles since the Süper Lig launched in 1959.
Trabzonspor ranks next with seven national championships, with only two other clubs ever having been crowned Turkish champions—Bursapor (2009–10) and İstanbul Başakşehir (2019–20).
Genuinely disrupting the established hierarchy is a very real ambition. Trabzonspor's most recent Süper Lig title came in 2021–22, though that was their first in nearly four decades.
Last season, Trabzonspor finished third, nine points clear of fourth-place Beşiktaş and just eight adrift of champions Galatasaray—a result that earned them entry into this season's Europa League at the playoff round stage.
Where Trabzonspor fell short of both Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe was in front of goal, scoring 16 fewer than the 77 each Istanbul powerhouse managed in the league. As both a prolific scorer and a creative force, Salah is a natural fit to help close that deficit.
With only the top two in the Süper Lig advancing to the Champions League, the minimum target for a squad featuring Salah and Onana—legitimately regarded as one of the world's finest goalkeepers as recently as 2023—is to reach that competition in the second year of Salah's deal. Should he help deliver a league title to Trabzonspor, he could cement a legacy there in just two years to rival what he built at Liverpool across nine.