Jamie Carragher Questions Mohamed Salah's Move to Trabzonspor

Jamie Carragher does not understand it. At all.

For the former Liverpool defender, Mohamed Salah leaving Anfield only to resurface at Trabzonspor, outside Europe’s traditional power base, is a move that jars with everything he believed about the “Egyptian King”.

Speaking on the Football Ramble, Carragher laid bare his surprise that Salah chose Turkey over one of the continent’s elite leagues.

“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,” he said.

“Too good for that”

Carragher’s argument is simple and ruthless: Salah, at 34, is still operating at a level that should keep him in the game’s highest shop window. For him, the winger belongs under the lights of San Siro, not in a title chase on the Black Sea coast.

While acknowledging that Trabzonspor have pulled off a huge coup, he could not hide his disappointment that Salah has not followed what he sees as the Cristiano Ronaldo route – staying at a “prestigious” club deep into his thirties.

Carragher admitted he had pictured Salah in Italy, not in the Süper Lig.

“I was convinced he'd end up at an AC Milan or Juventus or somewhere like that, maybe his wages were a problem,” he said. “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 word – “prestigious” – sits at the heart of his critique. The football, the stage, the history. Carragher sees Salah as a player who should still be chasing all three at the very top.

Money, visibility and the trade-off

Behind the move lies a package that underlines just how badly Trabzonspor wanted him. The Turkish club have reportedly put together a deal worth €17 million per year, a salary that instantly makes Salah the undisputed star of the project.

Carragher’s concern is that the price of that payday is a drop in competitive intensity and visibility. He believes Salah is stepping away from the weekly demands that shaped his Liverpool legend.

Even the promise of European football does not sway him. Trabzonspor will be in the Europa League next season, yet Carragher still views the domestic grind as a step down for a player who only recently walked away from a £400,000‑a‑week contract at Anfield.

“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.”

The frustration is clear. In Carragher’s eyes, Salah had one more big chapter left at the top of the European game and has chosen a different book altogether.

A new kingdom in the north

Salah, though, appears unmoved by such doubts. He has committed fully to his new adventure in northern Turkey, where he will link up with familiar Premier League faces. Manchester United loanee Andre Onana and former Manchester City defender Stefan Savic are among those he will join in a dressing room being rebuilt around experience and profile.

The welcome has been ferocious. The scenes at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, where fans flooded in to greet him, suggested something close to a coronation. If Carragher questions the prestige of the move, the supporters clearly do not. In Trabzon, the “Egyptian King” will be treated like royalty.

He leaves behind a body of work at Liverpool that needs no embellishment: Premier League, Champions League, and every major trophy on offer secured during a golden era on Merseyside. His numbers, his records, his moments – all already carved into club folklore.

Now comes a different kind of challenge. Trabzonspor last won the Süper Lig in 2022 and have watched Galatasaray and Fenerbahce stretch away again. They are gambling that Salah’s star power and goals can close that gap, tilt the balance of power back towards the Black Sea.

Carragher may see a player stepping down. Trabzonspor see the man who can drag them up. Only the coming seasons will show which vision proves closer to the truth.