Mohamed Salah Joins Trabzonspor: A New Chapter Begins

Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool chapter is over. Nine years, a stack of goals, a gilded place in Anfield folklore – and now a left‑field twist. The Egyptian has landed in Turkey, set to sign for Trabzonspor on a free transfer and, in doing so, follow a path once trodden by Daniel Sturridge.

He has not yet taken his medical or put pen to paper, but the move is effectively in motion. Salah has arrived, Trabzon is buzzing, and a Super Lig club that finished third last season is preparing to welcome one of the defining forwards of the Premier League era.

This is not the Saudi switch many expected. Not the Italian return some in Serie A had quietly explored. Besiktas asked the question. Al-Ittihad showed interest. There was curiosity from Italy. Salah listened, weighed it all up, and chose Trabzonspor – a club with a fiercely loyal fanbase and a realistic shot at Europa League football in the 2026/27 season if it clears the qualifying rounds.

Walking the Sturridge road

The move instantly evokes memories of Sturridge’s own Turkish detour. He arrived at Trabzonspor in 2019 on a three-year deal, a former Liverpool striker with a point to prove and a reputation to revive. For a brief spell, it worked.

Sturridge scored seven goals in 16 games, flashes of the old sharpness surfacing on the Black Sea coast. Then it was over almost as quickly as it began. Club and player agreed to terminate the contract, and his time in Turkey ended before it had truly settled.

His journey had already taken in Manchester City, Chelsea, Bolton, Liverpool and West Brom. At Anfield, across six and a half years, Sturridge struck 67 times in 160 appearances and built that devastating partnership with Luis Suarez – a front line that once terrified defences across England and Europe.

After Trabzonspor, his career drifted further from the spotlight. A move to Perth Glory for the 2021/22 A-League season never really caught fire. Fitness problems delayed his first training session until November. A groin injury in February cut into what little rhythm he had. He managed just six appearances, only one start, no goals. Perth’s chief executive Tony Pignata later called the move “disappointing”, and new manager Ruben Zadkovich released him the following June.

Salah arrives in Trabzon with a far stronger recent record and a very different physical profile, but the echoes of that earlier Liverpool‑to‑Trabzonspor switch are hard to ignore.

A new number, a new symbol

At Liverpool, Salah’s No. 11 became iconic. It is stitched into the modern history of the club – Champions League nights, title charges, Golden Boots. For Egypt, he wears No. 10. Both numbers are taken at Trabzonspor. Ozan Tufan holds 11. Ernest Muci has 10.

So Salah has gone local.

The club has already released images of him in the No. 61 shirt. To outsiders, it is an unusual choice for a global star. To Trabzon, it means everything. The number is the city’s license plate code, a badge of identity and pride. It is on scarves, banners, and tattoos. For locals, 61 is not just a number; it is a statement.

That symbolism appears to have appealed to Salah. In Liverpool, he became the face of a city’s footballing renaissance. In Trabzon, he seems intent on embracing the culture from the start, wearing a number that binds him directly to the place he now represents.

Leaving Anfield on his own terms

Salah could have stayed where he was adored. His Liverpool contract ran until 2027. The club would have happily kept one of its greatest ever forwards for another year. Instead, both sides agreed that this summer was the right moment to part.

His final season at Anfield was his weakest in a red shirt. Liverpool did scrape back into the Champions League, but the campaign lacked the relentlessness and clarity of the Klopp era at its peak. Salah still produced, but not at the ferocious level that had become his norm.

Even so, his departure marks the end of a towering spell. He arrived in 2017 and transformed Liverpool’s attack, dragged them to finals, and helped deliver the trophies that had eluded the club for a generation. Now, at 34, he chooses a new challenge far from the Premier League spotlight, in a league where his name will instantly become the headline act.

Trabzonspor, for their part, are gambling on more than just a global brand. They are betting that there is still enough of the old Salah – the movement, the cold finishing, the big-game edge – to push them beyond third place and into something more.

Sturridge’s story in Trabzon ended abruptly. Salah’s is only just beginning. How long it runs, and how brightly it burns, will define how this bold late-career move is remembered.