Written with the help of artificial-intelligence tools and checked by automated controls.
Thousands of supporters massed behind the railings of Atatürk Airport, claret and blue smoke bombs, a player stepping off the plane already wearing the colors of his new club: the images of Mohamed Salah's arrival in Istanbul on Wednesday morning already belong to the history of Turkish football. The 34-year-old Egyptian, free after nine seasons and 257 goals in a Liverpool shirt, is set to join Trabzonspor, the Black Sea club that had formalized the opening of negotiations the day before with the Turkish regulatory platform (KAP).
The transfer, unimaginable just a month ago, is about to be completed. Salah landed in the Turkish metropolis to cheers, a claret cap on his head and his new club's shirt on his shoulders. A few selfies, an impromptu guard of honor, and the player disappeared into a secure convoy heading to the medical center for the traditional routine check-up. The official announcement of the signing, meanwhile, should not be long in coming.
The transfer, unimaginable just a month ago, is about to be completed.
From the Kop to the Karadeniz
Salah leaves England with a trophy cabinet that few Liverpool legends can claim: a Champions League in 2019, a Premier League title in 2020, three Golden Boots, and the status of an absolute icon at Anfield. At 34, the Egyptian winger is turning a page that many imagined written in Saudi Arabia or MLS. He has chosen Turkey. A choice that surprises European football but is explained by the determination of Trabzonspor's leaders, ready to build a project around him with a two-season contract and a salary that shatters the standards of the Turkish league.
The club from northeastern Anatolia is no stranger to such a coup. In 1976, it became the first non-Istanbul club to win the Turkish championship, breaking a monopoly that seemed eternal. Half a century later, the gesture carries the same symbolic weight: attracting the biggest African star of the moment is a way of signaling to Istanbul that the Super Lig no longer revolves solely around the Bosphorus.
A welcome befitting the myth
The scenes captured at Atatürk recall the great hours of galactic transfers. Hundreds of supporters, some arriving from Trabzon 900 kilometers away, waited for hours in the August heat. The club had prepared the ground: meticulous communication, shirts with the number 11 already available for pre-order, and a promise of an official presentation in a Şenol Güneş Stadium that will be sold out.
The Turkish press, which has been following the saga for weeks, is already talking about a "Salah effect" on season tickets and merchandise sales. Trabzonspor is reportedly banking on 100,000 shirts sold in the first few days. A dizzying figure for a league that has never attracted a star of this caliber since the stints of Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder at Galatasaray, more than ten years ago.
A league changing dimension
Beyond the Salah case, this transfer tells the story of the ambition of Turkish football, which no longer wants to be a league for golden pre-retirement. Trabzonspor, champions in 2022 after thirty-eight years of drought, is seeking to establish itself permanently in the European landscape. With Salah, the club gains instant international credibility and a talent magnet that could redraw the transfer map in the eastern Mediterranean. The challenge now is to convert this into on-field success: the Egyptian's first official match in his new colors is expected in the coming days, and all of Turkey will have its eyes fixed on the Black Sea.