When Mohamed Salah touched down in Istanbul last August, he was already wearing the burgundy and blue of Trabzonspor. The club’s home shirt sold out almost instantly. A few hours later, as he prepared to travel to Trabzon to finalise his move, the forward asked an aide what he should wear. The reply was simple: the same kit. Instead, club president Ertugrul Dogan suggested the black away shirt. That, too, disappeared from shelves in a flash.
That moment set the tone for what has become a remarkable love affair between the Egyptian forward and a city of roughly 800,000 on Turkey’s Black Sea coast. Mohamed Salah at Trabzonspor is not just a transfer story; it is a cultural phenomenon that has reshaped the club’s commercial and sporting outlook.
A city draped in Salah
Walk through Trabzon on matchday and Salah’s face is everywhere. Fishmongers have his on their walls. The club shop’s ground floor is devoted to the Egyptian, with everything else relegated upstairs. Outside the stadium, scarves, magnets, keyrings, lighters and even Egyptian Nemes headdresses in Trabzonspor colours are on sale. Season ticket sales have soared since his arrival, and the club has already surpassed last year’s merchandise revenue in just three months.
Turkish football journalist Hasan Tuncel estimates that nine out of every ten fans wearing a shirt in the city have Salah’s name on the back. The tenth, he jokes, has their own.
The adulation extends beyond Trabzon. New flights from Cairo, Dubai and Riyadh have been introduced, making the club more accessible to supporters across the Arab world. On a flight from Istanbul, one Egyptian family of ten was travelling to watch Trabzonspor’s Uefa Conference League match against Freiburg. “He is our ambassador and our Egyptian King,” said Mahmoud, one of the group, adding that Salah has become an ambassador for Turkey too.
At that game, a group of Egyptian celebrities and influencers were present, with a combined Instagram following of about five million. Trabzonspor’s own account has three million followers. Salah has 68 million.
Even the landscape has been altered. A rock in the Trabzon highlands where Salah posed for a after a hike has been renamed Salahtasi, or Salah’s Rock, and has become a tourist destination. A street in the nearby town of Yomra, where he lives, now bears his name.
Still delivering on the pitch
The commercial impact is undeniable, but Salah’s contribution on the field has been just as significant. He has scored 10 goals and provided five assists in all competitions, helping Trabzonspor to seven wins in their first 10 league games. The club sits three points behind leaders Galatasaray, having already beaten both Galatasaray and Besiktas.
For context, the Istanbul giants—Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas—have won 61 league titles between them. Trabzonspor have seven. The Black Sea Storm are mounting a serious challenge, and Salah is at the heart of it.
Watching him in the flesh against Freiburg, his pace may have dropped a notch from his peak, but the touch, quick feet and instinct for goalscoring positions remain. His defensive duties are limited, a familiar debate from his Liverpool days, but his attacking threat is undiminished.
Teammate Paul Onuachu, formerly of Southampton, spoke warmly of the forward’s influence. “Everyone wants to work with a star like Mohamed Salah,” he said. “He adds so much and helps all of us.”
A quieter life away from the spotlight
Salah’s decision to join Trabzonspor was driven partly by finance—he earns about £14.6m per year plus 20% of official merchandise sold with his name—but also by the chance to focus entirely on football. Besiktas was considered after the 2026 World Cup, but multiple conversations with Trabzonspor convinced him the club was the right fit, offering a life away from Istanbul’s intensity.
He employs a private chef and a security detail, and continues to set standards in the gym and on the training ground. He is known to enjoy Turkish coffee and is often seen leaving the ground with Ayran, a traditional yogurt drink. Yet despite his desire to explore the city, his fame makes it difficult.
His impact has been felt far beyond Trabzon. Kerim Tonyali, part of the Gurbetci Gencler supporters’ group, believes Salah is the biggest football star in Turkey after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. For many in the Muslim world, Trabzonspor is becoming a second club.
What next for the Egyptian King?
Salah signed a two-year deal in the summer of 2026, and no decision has been made about how long he will stay. However, sources in the Middle East suggest he will move to Saudi Arabia when the contract expires in 2028, by which time he will be 36.
He still harbours ambitions to play in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2030 World Cup, partly held in North Africa. For now, though, he is focused on the present—and on proving he still belongs at the highest level.
Asked by BBC Sport if he had a message for Liverpool fans, Salah simply said “hello” and smiled. It was a rare public utterance from a player who has never been comfortable in the mixed zone. Last season was his least prolific at Anfield, and Liverpool’s struggles in front of goal have made his departure harder to swallow. But the chapter is closed, and a new one is being written on the shores of the Black Sea.
For the people of Trabzon, the feeling is best summed up by fan Nisa Dumangoz, who went to Istanbul to greet him at the airport. “It was surreal,” she said. “I still can’t believe that he is one of us.”
