Mohamed Salah has signed a two-year contract with Turkish club Trabzonspor, ending his nine-year association with Liverpool on a free transfer. The deal pays the 34-year-old €17m (£14.5m) per season, making him the highest-paid player in Turkish football, according to Türkiye Today.

The Guardian reports that Salah will also receive a 20% share from products sold under his name at the club, plus conditional bonuses each season. Trabzonspor, who officially announced the signing on their club website on 6 August, had already revealed the deal to the Turkish stock exchange — a requirement for publicly listed companies in Turkey. Salah arrived in Istanbul wearing Trabzonspor's colours a day before the signing ceremony at the club's stadium.

The numbers tell the story of Salah's time at Anfield: 257 goals in 442 appearances, two Premier League titles, and a Champions League winner's medal. He arrived from Roma in 2017 and became one of the most prolific forwards in English football history, transforming Liverpool from top-four contenders into serial trophy winners.

His final season at Liverpool told a different story. Salah's output dipped, and he found himself left on the bench in European matches — leading to a public disagreement with then-manager Arne Slot. For a player who had been virtually undroppable for the best part of seven years, the friction was impossible to hide. A parting of ways felt inevitable, and Salah leaves as a free agent, able to negotiate without a transfer fee changing hands.

Trabzonspor finished third in the Turkish Super Lig last season, earning a place in the playoff round of the Europa League — the continent's second-tier club competition, one step below the Champions League. The club last won the Turkish league title in 2022 and are betting that Salah's pedigree can help close the gap to the Istanbul heavyweights who dominate the division.

For Salah, it is a fresh start in a league few expected him to choose. The Turkish Super Lig is competitive and passionate but sits outside Europe's traditional top five. At 34, Salah is betting that he can still produce at the highest level, and Trabzonspor are betting that his name alone — on shirts, on merchandise, on matchdays — will reshape the club's profile both at home and abroad.

That commercial dimension is baked into the contract. A 20% cut of branded product sales is unusual in football deals and suggests both sides see Salah's marketability as central to the arrangement, not just his goals.

Trabzonspor's pre-season has been mixed. The club lost 1-0 to Qatari side Al Sadd in their second friendly of an Austrian training camp, according to their official website. Results in friendlies rarely tell you much, but Salah's fitness and sharpness will be scrutinised from the moment he pulls on the claret-and-blue shirt in earnest.

What makes this transfer resonate is the scale of the player and the surprise of the destination. Salah could have pursued quieter options — a slower league, a softer spotlight. Instead he has chosen a club with European ambition, a fanbase as intense as any on the continent, and the kind of pressure that will not forgive a quiet afternoon. Whether that gamble pays off will be one of the stories of the season.