How Trabzonspor signed Salah: The inside story of Turkish football’s boldest deal

Salah gets a stunning welcome

Club president Ertugrul Dogan was sitting beside Salah during the ceremony and looked more than pleased with the deal he had managed to pull off.

He had spent the days leading up to the announcement seeing just how excited supporters on the Black Sea coast were, and by the time Salah signed, it was obvious just how big the moment was for the club.

A player of Salah’s level joining a club like Trabzonspor would have seemed almost unthinkable not that long ago. The Turkish side have won the league just once since their successful spell in the 1970s and early 1980s, and they are not competing in the Champions League.

Salah, meanwhile, arrives after spending nine years at Liverpool, where he scored 191 Premier League goals and established himself as one of the defining players of the 2010s. His arrival on the Black Sea is therefore a huge statement for Trabzonspor, especially given the level of club he has spent his career playing for.

‘Why should I choose Trabzonspor?’

Speaking to BBC Sport Africa and BBC Turkish, Dogan argued that Salah was never brought to Trabzonspor simply because of the promise of trophies or European football.

Instead, he believes the club offered something that bigger sides cannot necessarily match. Trabzon, in north-eastern Turkey near the Georgian border, is home to around 800,000 people and does not rank among the country’s 20 biggest urban centres, but football is deeply rooted in the city. For Dogan, that passion is what made the difference.

"I always say this about Trabzonspor and the city — we’re the biggest one-club city in the world. Salah asked us something like, ‘Why should I choose Trabzonspor now?’ We told him about the city and said: ‘You can be sure you will meet a group of supporters unlike any you have experienced before. You’ll feel the genuine love those people have inside them.’"

- Ertugrul Dogan, Trabzonspor president

What Salah found in Trabzon

Dogan’s connection to Trabzonspor goes far beyond his position as club president. Born in the city in January 1977, he built his fortune through several businesses, including real estate and hazelnuts, before moving into the energy industry, where he focused on biofuels.

He took over as president in 2023, just after the club had enjoyed one of its biggest successes in recent years by winning the 2021-22 Turkish league title.

Since then, Trabzonspor, also known as the Black Sea Storm, have finished third, seventh and third in the Super Lig. Last season, they added another trophy to that run by winning the Turkish Cup under manager Fatih Tekke.

That recent progress helps explain why the club could even attempt a deal for someone like Salah, despite having no Champions League football to offer him.

Trabzonspor have built genuine momentum and have a fanbase that is deeply invested in the club, with Dogan believing that the atmosphere around the team can offer something that European competition cannot.

There is also a much bigger reason why Dogan believes Salah’s arrival matters. He described the Egyptian as “the biggest Muslim footballer in the world” and “an influential role model”, suggesting that the impact of the signing could stretch far beyond Trabzon and Turkish football.

"We held Salah’s signing ceremony in front of 35,000 people. It was clear from everything he did that he felt that love, and he told us as much too. He thanked us."

- Ertugrul Dogan