Trabzonspor Stands by Tekke After Europa League Defeat
Trabzonspor were supposed to be building a European adventure around Mohamed Salah. Instead, they woke up on Friday dealing with a 4-0 humiliation, a 5-0 aggregate exit, and a head coach trying to walk away.
Ferencvaros ripped through the Turkish side in Hungary on Thursday night, ending Trabzonspor’s Europa League hopes at the play-off stage and leaving a club that spent the summer making headlines suddenly looking very small on the continental stage.
The reaction was instant. Fatih Tekke, the former striker who had guided Trabzonspor to third place in the Super Lig last season and earned the right to lead this revamped squad, offered his resignation in the aftermath of the defeat. It was a raw, emotional move from a coach who clearly felt the weight of expectation and embarrassment.
The board refused to let him go.
On Friday morning, the club rejected Tekke’s offer, stressing that his decision had come from the “intense emotional impact” of the Europa League exit rather than any considered, long-term judgment. For now, at least, they are standing by the 48-year-old and the project he started.
The project is a bold one. Trabzonspor, seven-time champions of Turkey, have gone all-in on star power this summer. They brought in Premier League winners Salah and Fabinho, and secured a loan return for Andre Onana from Manchester United. It is the kind of transfer window that signals intent, that tells rivals at home and abroad that this is not a club content with merely competing.
Yet the first major European test ended in a heavy defeat and a bruised ego.
The consolation, if it can be called that, lies in the safety net of the Europa Conference League. Trabzonspor will drop into UEFA’s third-tier competition this season and will discover their six league-phase opponents on Friday. It is not where a club signing Salah imagined itself, but it is still a stage, still a chance to repair reputations and build rhythm.
Domestically, the early signs with their new talisman have been far brighter. Salah, 34, stunned the football world last month when he chose Trabzonspor after mutually agreeing to terminate his Liverpool contract at the end of last season. The Egypt international leaves behind a towering legacy at Anfield: 257 goals in 442 appearances, the third-highest scorer in Liverpool’s history behind Ian Rush and Roger Hunt, after joining from Roma in 2017.
He has wasted little time making his mark in Turkey. Salah scored his first two goals for his new club in a 2-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir on Saturday, a reminder of the ruthless edge that made him one of the most feared forwards in Europe.
That contrast is stark. At home, a star-driven side beginning to click, their marquee signing already on the scoresheet. In Europe, a brutal reality check and a coach so shaken he tried to resign.
Trabzonspor have chosen stability over shock. They have kept Tekke, kept faith in the man who delivered third place last season and now must weld this glittering, high-profile squad into a team that can handle the pressure that comes with it.
The Europa League dream has gone for this year. The Europa Conference League now becomes both a test and an opportunity. With Salah, Fabinho and Onana in the dressing room and a coach who has just been handed a very public vote of confidence, the question is simple: does this setback break Trabzonspor’s momentum, or does it light the fire they thought they were buying in the first place?
