Inside Trabzonspor’s signing of Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah signed a two-year contract at Trabzonspor's Papara Park stadium on 6 August in front of 35,000 supporters, with club president Ertugrul Dogan putting his signature on the paperwork beside the Egyptian. Dogan, who struggled to keep a smile while signing, told BBC Sport Africa and BBC Turkish that the reception had convinced him he had pulled off a transfer coup.

Trabzon is located on the Black Sea coast near the border with Georgia in the north-east of Turkey, has a population of around 800,000 and is not in the country's top 20 largest urban centres. "I always say this about Trabzonspor and the city - we're the biggest one-club city in the world," Dogan said, adding that Salah asked, "Why should I choose Trabzonspor now?" and that the club told him, "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." Salah scored 191 Premier League goals during a nine-year spell with Liverpool, and Dogan — born January 1977 — became Trabzonspor president in 2023 after building businesses in real estate, hazelnuts and biofuels.

Under Dogan's presidency, Trabzonspor have finished third, seventh and third in the Super Lig; the club won the league in 2021-22 and last season captured the Turkish Cup under coach Fatih Tekke. Tekke is now attempting to guide the team into the Europa League despite a 1-0 home defeat in the first leg of their play-off tie against Hungary's Ferencvaros. "We are working to make Trabzonspor and Trabzon itself a destination for talented young players from all over the world," said Dogan. "We want to take them to the next level, to move on to bigger European clubs. Those young players… [combined with] star players… a star in every way, with their lifestyle, their professionalism, their smile, their positive energy. "Mohamed Salah is a really great example in this respect."

During the off-season Trabzonspor sold 20-year-old Ivorian midfielder Christ Inao Oulai to Fiorentina and Brazilian forward Felipe Augusto, 22, to Zenit St Petersburg for large profits, while signing young players from Albania, Belgium, Cape Verde and Portugal and bringing back Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana for a second season on loan from Manchester United. Dogan described the Salah deal as a potential gamechanger: "The attention it has generated and the level of engagement it has created around the world cannot easily be given a direct financial value," explained Dogan, who has openly admitted that Salah will be earning €17m per year (£14.6m, $19.9m), as well as 20% of any merchandise with his name on. "Purely from a financial perspective, this transfer has no direct return as such. "We put up our season tickets this year. We had to make another increase. I told our fans, 'Look, I'm bringing you Salah, one of the biggest stars in the world'."

Dogan said nearly 70% of Salah's salary this year was covered by season ticket sales made within the first four or five days after the announcement of his arrival; the club's initial target was 25,000 season-ticket sales but it now expects to exceed 30,000. He added that major companies were contacting the club and that, "We're having important discussions in Turkey, Europe and the Arab world as well."

The news that Trabzonspor had won the race for Salah's signature after nine stellar seasons at Liverpool surprised some observers, with many expecting the forward to move to the Saudi Pro League or to the United States. Dogan said negotiations moved fast once both parties engaged: "Once we started talking, both sides genuinely approached each other very sincerely," he said. "We'd actually been pursuing him since the World Cup, but we knew at the start he was also talking to other clubs. Yes, there were clubs in Turkey who were interested," he confirmed. "After they said, 'We've pulled out of this transfer', we started talks. I think it took about five or six days to conclude. "We had the first meeting over Zoom. At that point it was really just the two sides getting to know each other. Then Salah was on holiday - he was in Mykonos - and after that the talks continued again via Zoom."

Trabzonspor brought Salah to Turkey for a medical in Istanbul to demonstrate the reception he would receive across the country; thousands of fans greeted him at the airport despite it being a working day. Salah made his debut as a second-half substitute in a 1-1 draw at Kasimpasa on 15 August, and Dogan said, "The whole city lives for football. Everywhere you go, on every corner, the city gives that player that energy and that happiness." Salah is expected to make his home league debut in Trabzon on Sunday.