Mohamed Salah and life in Turkey after leaving Liverpool for Trabzonspor
Back in August, when Mohamed Salah landed in Istanbul after flying in from his holiday in Mykonos, he wore Trabzonspor’s burgundy and blue home strip as he stepped out of the plane to be greeted by thousands of fans.
That kit sold out almost instantly. Later that day, as Salah headed to Trabzon in north-east Turkey to complete the formalities of one of the most unexpected transfers, he asked one of his entourage what he should wear.
“The same kit,” came the response, but Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan advised Salah to wear the black away kit instead. Of course, that sold out too.
From the outset of the 34-year-old’s arrival to this historic port city on the Black Sea, that sense of adulation has only grown.
“I went to the airport to see him in Istanbul and it was surreal,” says Nisa Dumangoz. “I still can’t believe that he is one of us.”
Go for a stroll through Trabzon on matchday and it is Salah’s face which adorns everything. Even the walls inside the fishmongers have pictures of him.
At the club shop in town, one of the staff jokes that the ground floor is for the Egyptian and the upper floor is for everything else.
Outside the stadium, there are scarves, magnets, keyrings, lighters with his face on and Egyptian Nemes headdresses in Trabzonspor colours. Season ticket sales rocketed after his arrival.
“Walking around Trabzon, it feels as though nine out of every 10 fans wearing a shirt have Salah’s name on the back. The 10th has their own,” says Turkish football journalist Hasan Tuncel.
The club have surpassed their merchandise revenue from last year in three months since Salah’s arrival, while the local airport is only getting busier.
Liverpool was difficult to reach for many supporters across the Arab world and tickets were often hard to source. Trabzon is far more accessible, with new flights introduced from Cairo, Dubai and Riyadh since Salah’s arrival.
On our flight from Istanbul, we meet an Egyptian family of 10 coming from Cairo for Trabzonspor’s Uefa Conference League game against Freiburg.
“He is our ambassador and our Egyptian King, and with how many people want to come to Turkey now, he is their ambassador too,” says Mahmoud.
At the game, there is a group of Egyptian celebrities and influencers. A quick check of their social media shows their combined Instagram following of about five million. Trabzonspor have three million. Salah has 68 million.
Salah recently went for a hike and posed for a picture on a rock in the Trabzon highlands. That rock has been renamed Salahtasi (Salah’s Rock) and is now a tourist destination.
The commercial element of his signing has more than been justified but crucially, on the pitch, Salah is driving Trabzonspor’s push for the Turkish Super Lig title and he has hit the ground running with 10 goals and five assists in all competitions.
Trabzonspor trail leaders Galatasaray by three points, having won seven of their first 10 games, including victories against the table-toppers and Besiktas.
For context, the Istanbul ‘big three’ of Galatasaray (26), Fenerbahce (19) and Besiktas (16) have won the league on 61 occasions combined, compared with Trabzonspor’s seven titles.
“In Turkey, he is the biggest football star after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo,” says Kerim Tonyali, who is part of Gurbetci Gencler, a Trabzonspor supporters’ group.
And given Salah’s status as an icon, Trabzonspor are quickly becoming the second club for many in Turkey and the wider Muslim world.
