Núñez Joins Salah at Trabzonspor: A New Financial Dynamic

Darwin Núñez is heading back into Mohamed Salah’s orbit. Only this time, the Uruguayan arrives as the higher earner.

Al-Hilal have agreed to send Núñez on a one-year loan to Trabzonspor in the current summer window, according to Saudi outlet Al-Yaum, citing Turkish newspaper Sözcü. The move will reunite the former Liverpool teammates on the Black Sea coast, just months after both left Anfield behind.

The numbers are striking. Núñez will keep the full salary he earns at Al-Hilal: 22 million euros for the season. That’s 5 million more than Salah’s current 17 million-euro wage packet at Trabzonspor. The Egyptian may still be the global superstar, but in this dressing room, the Uruguayan is the best-paid player.

Trabzonspor, though, are getting a heavyweight forward at a cut price. The Turkish club will pay just 8 million euros of Núñez’s salary, with Al-Hilal covering the remaining 14 million. It’s a financial compromise that underlines how keen the Saudi side are to move him on.

Núñez’s time in Riyadh never truly caught fire. He laboured through the first half of last season, struggled to convince, and then fell out of the domestic squad list entirely in the second half of the campaign. For a marquee arrival, it was a brutal comedown. For Al-Hilal, this loan is a reset button.

For Salah, it’s the start of a new chapter with a familiar face alongside him.

The Egyptian forward has already signed a two-year deal with Trabzonspor this summer, closing the book on a historic nine-year stay at Liverpool that began in 2017. Across that spell he became the club’s defining figure, driving them to a second Premier League title in their history and their first after a five-year wait.

Between 2022 and 2025, Salah and Núñez shared a Liverpool dressing room, the Egyptian carrying the burden of being the star while Núñez tried to grow into the role of his long-term strike partner. Now the roles shift slightly. In Turkey, Salah arrives as the icon, the proven winner, the man expected to lift a club and a league. Núñez comes as the expensive reclamation project, a talent that still needs to prove he can dominate a season rather than just light up moments.

Trabzonspor are betting that familiarity will help both of them. Salah knows Núñez’s runs, Núñez knows where Salah wants the ball, and defences across the Süper Lig may soon be reintroduced to a partnership that once terrorised backlines in England.

At Liverpool, they chased titles together. At Trabzonspor, they’ll chase something different: revival for one, reinvention for the other.