Carragher Critiques Salah's Move to Trabzonspor
Jamie Carragher did not bother to dress it up. For him, Mohamed Salah’s decision to swap Anfield and the Premier League spotlight for Trabzonspor and the Turkish Super Lig is a waste of a still-elite career.
Speaking on the Football Ramble, the former Liverpool defender laid out his disbelief that one of the defining forwards of his era has stepped away from Europe’s traditional powerbase.
“I never believed he was going to go to Saudi, because number one, he's too good for that. I think he can be playing in Serie A. Turkey for me feels a level too low,” Carragher said, cutting straight to the point.
“Too good for that” – Carragher’s frustration
Carragher’s issue is not with Trabzonspor as such, but with the tier of the move. In his eyes, a player who has terrorised Premier League defences and delivered on the biggest Champions League nights should still be operating at the sharpest edge of the European game.
While he acknowledged Trabzonspor have pulled off a “massive coup,” the 46-year-old cannot shake the feeling that Salah has stepped off the main stage too early. He expected a very different final act.
Carragher thought the 34-year-old was destined for a grand old cathedral of Italian football, not a club who finished third in the Super Lig last season.
“I was convinced he'd end up at an AC Milan or Juventus or somewhere like that, maybe his wages were a problem,” he admitted. “I don't know him, obviously have never spoken to him. But he's like Ronaldo, he's so driven, his numbers mean so much to him. I thought, he can still do this in Turkey by the way, but I thought he'd want to play at a real prestigious club.”
That comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo is telling. Carragher clearly believes that, like the Portuguese, Salah is obsessed with goals, records, legacy. Which is precisely why this move jars with him: the Egyptian, he feels, has chosen comfort over scrutiny, a rich contract over the relentless demands of a top-five league.
Prestige vs payday
At the heart of Carragher’s criticism is the belief that Salah has traded visibility and competitive edge for a lucrative package. Reports in Turkey suggest Trabzonspor have assembled a deal worth around €17 million per year to lure him to the Black Sea coast.
This, for a player who only recently walked away from a £400,000-a-week offer at Liverpool.
Carragher accepts that such figures will scare off some of Europe’s aristocrats. But he still expected Salah to bend rather than break on salary if it meant landing at what he repeatedly calls a “prestigious” club.
“Obviously his wage demands have put a few people off but I thought he might almost curb those demands a little bit to almost get a better club,” he continued. “To go to an AC Milan or Juventus or whoever it may be, play at the San Siro, still playing in big games, still playing in Europe. Turkey just feels like... I just think he's better than that.”
Trabzonspor will be in the Europa League next season, but for Carragher that is not enough. The occasional European night cannot, in his view, compensate for what he sees as a softer domestic grind. Week in, week out, he believes Salah should still be testing himself against the very best defenders in Italy, England, Spain, or Germany.
A new kingdom on the Black Sea
Salah, though, has made his choice. And if Carragher is unconvinced, the scenes at Istanbul Atatürk Airport told a different story.
The “Egyptian King” was greeted like royalty on arrival, thousands of supporters turning the terminal into a makeshift stadium. Flags, flares, camera phones held aloft: the kind of chaotic adoration that suggests he will not be short of worshippers in his new home.
In the north of Turkey, he will join a dressing room sprinkled with familiar names from English football. Manchester United loanee Andre Onana is there. So is former Manchester City defender Stefan Savic. It is not Serie A, but it is not anonymity either.
Salah leaves behind a body of work at Liverpool that scarcely needs retelling: every major trophy collected, including the Premier League and Champions League, and a goalscoring record that places him among the club’s greatest forwards. He departs as a legend, not a fading star pushed out of the door.
Trabzonspor, for their part, are gambling that this is not a farewell tour. They last lifted the Turkish title in 2022 and have watched Galatasaray and Fenerbahce pull away since. Salah is their statement of intent, the superstar signing meant to close that gap and drag them back into a title fight.
Carragher may look at the move and see a player stepping down a level. In Trabzon, they see the man who could turn a restless, hopeful club into champions again. Only one of them will be proved right.
