Drogheda United to face Mohamed Salah’s Trabzonspor in Turkey
Mohamed Salah's Trabzonspor will meet Drogheda United in a friendly on the Black Sea coast in north east Turkey on Thursday, the clubs said. Salah joined Trabzonspor in August and was unveiled to fans at a packed 40,000-seat Papara Park that month, while Drogheda played out a 0-0 draw with Galway in front of 5,000 fans that same weekend.
The fixture continues a two-decade link between the clubs that began online in 2006, a connection Drogheda chief executive Rian Wogan described to BBC Sport: "In 2006, in a Trabzonspor forum online, a couple of fans realised that there was a small Irish club that had the star and crescent, which are obviously symbols from the Turkish flag," and "From there they then subsequently realised that our club colours are also claret and blue and messages started going back and forward." The wider relationship between Ireland and Turkey traces back to the 1800s when the Ottoman Empire provided humanitarian aid to Ireland during the Great Famine, with the Ottoman Sultan donating £1,000, and the two countries celebrate 75 years of diplomatic relations this year.
Relations deepened when Drogheda entered examinership in 2008, were deducted 10 points, and supporters of Trabzonspor sent letters containing cash to the Irish club; two years later the clubs became sister clubs and planned a ceremonial friendly in Dublin in 2013. "They travelled over here to play and there was a freak deluge of rain that fell within an hour of kick-off," explains Wogan. "We had our staff in the turnstiles waiting to scan tickets in, but the game was deemed unplayable and Trabzonspor went home without playing the fixture."
When Drogheda announced the friendly on social media on 2 September, the post on X has been seen well over half a million times. About 30% of Drogheda's social media following is from Turkey, more than their share of followers from Ireland, the club said.
The crossover of supporters is visible at matches and around the town: Trabzonspor shirts and flags are commonly spotted at Drogheda fixtures and Turkish fans sometimes visit the club during the week just to see the stadium. One Trabzonspor fan, Cafer Bektas, lives a couple of miles outside Drogheda and attends every game; when he first moved to the area, wearing a Trabzonspor jersey caught the attention of locals and got him discounts in shops.
Drogheda fans will be hoping for similar treatment when they make the 4,700km trip to Turkey, and between 30 and 35 Boynesiders fans are set to make the journey; some Trabzonspor fans have already offered their homes to visiting supporters. Whether or not they will get to witness Salah face their club remains to be seen: he was left out of Egypt's squad that faced South Sudan in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Tuesday due to the match being played on artificial turf.
"He might not be in the squad, but even to have him in the stadium would be incredible," he says. "Trabzonspor have done amazing business in the last couple of windows and have really pushed the boundaries. The prospect of facing them is incredible."
The scheduled friendly between Trabzonspor and Drogheda United will take place on Thursday on the Black Sea coast in north east Turkey.
