Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah’s switch to Turkish football this summer was never a simple free transfer. The Egyptian forward left Liverpool at the end of last season after nine trophy-laden years at Anfield, where he scored 257 goals in 442 appearances.
Besiktas moved first. The Istanbul club held talks with Salah’s camp not long after appointing Vincenzo Italiano as head coach in June, and Besiktas president Serdal Adalı later said Salah had personally discussed the move with both Italiano and the club’s sporting director before giving his approval.
Those talks broke down, however, once the financial terms were finalised. Adalı said in an interview with WinWin that Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, had pushed his commission demand to an unusually high level during the closing stages of negotiations, adding that he doubted Salah himself was aware of the figures being discussed.
Trabzonspor stepped in as the Besiktas deal collapsed, and the Black Sea club completed a two-year contract with Salah worth an estimated €17 million per season, through to the summer of 2028.
That background resurfaced this week after Trabzonspor beat Besiktas in the Turkish Super Lig.
Trabzonspor won 2-0 at Papara Park on Monday in the eighth round of the season. Ozan Tufan opened the scoring in the 21st minute, and Salah doubled the lead in the 71st minute with a low finish from inside the box after a quick counter-attack, despite Besiktas holding the majority of possession for long periods.
The following morning, Salah posted images from the match on his Instagram and X accounts. He captioned them “Yüzde otuz beş” – Turkish for “35 percent” – alongside a winking emoji, a message widely interpreted in Turkish media as a direct reference to Adalı’s comments about the commission dispute from the summer.
Adalı had put the figure at around 35% when discussing the collapsed move in his interview with WinWin, describing the commission demand as having reached an extraordinary level and suggesting Salah may not have known the details himself.
Salah’s post brought that episode back into the public conversation three months on.
The goal was Salah’s eighth in the league this season, keeping him as the outright top scorer in the Super Lig, with three assists added in eight appearances.
It also extended Trabzonspor’s winning run to four matches under new head coach Thomas Reis, who replaced Hüseyin Çimşir in September after an earlier managerial change at the club.
The win lifted Trabzonspor to fourth in the table on 16 points, one point and one place above Besiktas, who dropped to fifth. Trabzonspor travel to Çaykur Rizespor in their next league fixture, while Besiktas host Istanbul Basaksehir.
Yüzde otuz beş 😉 https://t.co/kJZA1zJgK3
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) October 20, 2026
Support DaveOCKOP and enjoy the site completely ad-free. You’ll get an uninterrupted browsing experience while helping us continue to deliver the latest Liverpool news, breaking stories and exclusives. Go ad-free today.