Jamie Carragher's Thoughts on Mohamed Salah's Move to Trabzonspor

Jamie Carragher did not try to disguise his disbelief.

The former Liverpool defender, speaking on the Football Ramble, laid out exactly what he thinks of Mohamed Salah’s decision to swap Anfield for Trabzonspor – and for the Turkish Super Lig rather than one of Europe’s traditional power bases.

“I never believed he was going to go to Saudi, because number one, he's too good for that,” Carragher said. “I think he can be playing in Serie A. Turkey for me feels a level too low.”

That line set the tone.

To Carragher, Trabzonspor have pulled off a stunning coup, but Salah has stepped away from the stage his talent demands. The 34-year-old, he argued, should have followed the path Cristiano Ronaldo once trod by remaining at what he called a “prestigious” club, rather than heading to a side that finished third in the Super Lig last season.

Carragher admitted he had a very different destination in mind.

“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.”

The heart of his criticism is simple: visibility and level.

In Carragher’s eyes, Salah has traded the relentless glare and intensity of the elite for a lucrative contract in a league that does not test him often enough. Reports in Turkey suggest Trabzonspor have assembled a package worth around €17 million per year to tempt him to the Black Sea coast.

For a player who only recently walked away from a £400,000-a-week offer at Liverpool, the numbers are vast but not surprising. The platform, Carragher insists, is.

Trabzonspor will be in the Europa League next season. There will be European nights, there will be noise, there will be pressure. Carragher still believes the weekly standard falls short of what Salah should accept at this stage of his career.

“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.”

That pause – “Turkey just feels like...” – said as much as the rest. For Carragher, this is not a romantic late-career wander. It is a missed chance to extend his time at the summit.

Salah, though, has made his choice and appears fully committed to it.

In the north of Turkey, he will walk into a dressing room that already carries a Premier League echo. Manchester United loanee Andre Onana and former Manchester City defender Stefan Savic are among those he will join as Trabzonspor attempt to muscle back into the title picture.

The “Egyptian King” leaves England with a legacy that barely needs retelling: every major trophy with Liverpool, including the Premier League and the Champions League, and a goalscoring record that rewrote club history. That chapter is closed. The next opens in claret and blue, not red and black.

If Carragher remains unconvinced, the scenes at Istanbul Atatürk Airport told a different story. The reception for Salah bordered on hysteria. Flares, banners, songs. For supporters starved of domestic dominance since 2022, this is a statement that they still intend to trade punches with Galatasaray and Fenerbahce.

Trabzonspor are betting that the aura which once terrified defences in England will now tilt a title race in Turkey. Carragher is just as sure that aura still belonged on the grander stages of Serie A.

The question now is not whether Salah could have played at San Siro. It is whether, from Trabzon, he can still shape the conversation at the very top of European football.