Between Spain, Saudi Arabia and Turkey: did Mohamed Salah make the right decision?

In the early days of the negotiations after the World Cup, Besiktas looked the likeliest destination for the Egyptian star.

Talk even turned to the shirt number he would wear (11), the value of the contract and the filming of the club's advertising campaigns. The Turkish club were clearly confident of getting the deal done.

Then the negotiations stalled. Contractual disputes, particularly over certain financial clauses and the role of the player's agent Rami Abbas, brought everything to a halt at the decisive moment. Other clubs began to pounce.

Beşiktaş's negotiations stalled, and several Saudi clubs pounced, with Al-Ittihad at the front of the queue.

Reports claimed Salah had agreed to the Saudi offer in return for a huge salary reaching 25 million dollars a year. Al-Diriyah also surfaced among the clubs monitoring the situation, ready to step in should the Turkish talks collapse.

Financially, the Saudi league offered by far the strongest package. The competition has become a major project in recent years, luring a host of the world's biggest stars.

Yet other reports suggested Salah still preferred to stay in Europe, believing this stage of his career allows him to compete at the top of the old continent. That is why the Saudi offers, for all their financial muscle, never became a final agreement.

Days later, Atletico Madrid entered the picture.

Spanish reports spoke of preliminary talks and a club keen to capitalise on Salah's free-agent status, with a two-season contract taking shape that included an option to extend.

The negotiations never moved beyond enquiries and a study of the financial terms. No official announcement followed, and no final agreement was struck.

Sporting logic pointed to Atletico as the best fit. The move would have kept Salah in one of Europe's strongest leagues, handed him Champions League football and thrown him into the fight for domestic and continental silverware.

In the transfer world, though, "interest" and "an official offer" are two very different things.

While rival clubs briefed the press, Trabzonspor got to work on the ground.

The club confirmed talks with Mohamed Salah were under way, then set out the date the player would land in Istanbul to complete his transfer. That single step dragged the whole saga out of the rumour mill and into reality.

Perhaps that was the decisive factor in the entire story. Salah saw a clear project in front of him and a club ready to close the deal, rather than waiting on offers that rarely got past the opening round of negotiations. It all led to today's official announcement.

Look at the sporting side alone and Trabzon offers several important advantages.

Start with the obvious. It satisfies Salah's desire to stay in Europe, a point that has cropped up in more than one report over the past few days.

The team will also compete in the Europa League, keeping the player involved in continental competition rather than confined to domestic football.

Then there's his status. Salah would be the undisputed number one star, with the attacking system built around him, something he might not get at other clubs packed with big names.

Fan and media pressure, for all that it exists in Turkey, looks lighter than what would have awaited him elsewhere, particularly in the Saudi Pro League.

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The choice of Trabzon does carry some drawbacks, though. The most notable is that the Turkish league remains weaker than its Spanish or English counterparts, and the Europa League is a world away from the Champions League.

Salah may also have turned down bigger money in Saudi Arabia. That league now boasts a serious sporting project and is no longer just a financial destination, as many viewed it a few years ago.

Was Atletico Madrid's interest genuine, and could it have become an official offer? Plenty will see a move to La Liga as the stronger sporting option.

You can't tell this story without pausing on the role of Rami Abbas, Mohamed Salah's agent.

Reports place Abbas at every stage of the negotiations. His name rose to prominence in particular after talk of contractual disagreements that helped scupper the player's move to Besiktas.

Some fans criticised the agent's hard line. Yet the reality suggests his primary role is to protect the player's interests and secure the best possible contract in financial and legal terms.

That firmness may well have handed Salah a better opportunity in the end, with the negotiations moving from Besiktas to Trabzonspor, who managed to reach the official stages of the deal.

Was Mohamed Salah right to pick Trabzonspor? Nobody can say for certain, because every option on the table carried its own upside and downside. Atletico Madrid offered a chance to keep competing at Europe's summit. The Saudi league dangled a vast sporting and financial project. Trabzonspor let him stay in Europe as the leading man in a side building around him as its number one star.

Paper doesn't decide football, though. The green rectangle does. Move to Trabzonspor and Salah could write one of the most successful chapters of his career, leading the team to domestic silverware and a Champions League campaign. Then again, time may prove another option would have suited him better.

No definitive answer exists for now. News reports and speculation won't deliver the true verdict. What the Egyptian star produces on the pitch in the Turkish club's shirt will.

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