Núñez and Salah Reunite at Trabzonspor: A Tale of Wages

Darwin Núñez is heading back into Mohamed Salah’s orbit. Only this time, the Uruguayan is the one on the heavier wage packet.

According to Saudi newspaper Al-Yaum, citing Turkish outlet Sözcü, Al-Hilal have agreed to send Núñez to Trabzonspor on a one-season loan this summer. The move would reunite him with Salah in Turkey, a year after their paths split following their spell together at Liverpool.

The numbers are eye-catching. Núñez will keep the full salary he earns at Al-Hilal: 22 million euros for the season. That is 5 million more than Salah’s current Trabzonspor deal, which stands at 17 million euros.

Trabzonspor will not be paying all of it. Far from it. The Turkish club are set to cover 8 million euros of Núñez’s wage, with Al-Hilal absorbing the remaining 14 million. A compromise that underlines how keen the Saudi side are to move him on after a difficult campaign.

Núñez’s first season at Al-Hilal never really caught fire. He laboured through the first half of the year, struggled to convince, then slipped completely out of the domestic squad list in the second half of the season. For a marquee signing on a superstar salary, that is a brutal fall.

So the door opens in Trabzon. And on the other side stands a familiar figure.

Salah joined Trabzonspor earlier in this window on a two-year contract, closing the book on a monumental nine-year spell at Liverpool that began in 2017. In that time he became the face of the club, the decisive force in their major honours, and the man who drove them to a second Premier League title – the first after a five-year wait.

Between 2022 and 2025, Núñez and Salah shared a dressing room at Anfield. The Egyptian was the established icon, the reference point, the one opponents feared most. Núñez arrived as the raw, explosive forward expected to grow alongside him. They now meet again in a very different setting, but with a similar expectation: to carry a club’s ambitions on their shoulders.

This time, though, the wage slip tells its own story. Salah remains the legend. Núñez is the one with something to prove.

Trabzonspor are betting that together, they can turn that tension into goals.