Salah in a lengthy interview: Szoboszlai is impressed, and this is my dream with Trabzon

Mohamed Salah opened by stressing that motivation and ambition had been the two most important factors in his football career. From a young age, he explained, he learned that success cannot be achieved without a constant drive.

The Egyptian star has achieved a great deal over the past years, but he wanted a new challenge to keep him developing. He found it in the Trabzonspor project. Salah expressed his hope of winning titles, chief among them a European trophy, while also competing for the league.

Salah has revealed his first reaction to Trabzonspor's interest in signing him, confirming that he immediately began hunting down the city and its best spots.

He had played before in cities that adore football, he explained, the likes of Liverpool and Fiorentina. Clubs based in football-mad cities carry a completely different atmosphere to those in capital cities, he believes. That's why he felt real excitement from the very first moment, so much so that he even went searching for the best restaurants in town.

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The Egypt captain revealed the part the club president played in getting the deal done, and what struck him most was the sheer ambition behind the project the club wants to build over the coming years.

He had heard the president speak of love and fan support. That much stayed with him. What he had not expected was to see it in the flesh, hit first by an extraordinary welcome the moment he landed at the airport, and again at the stadium.

One thing convinced him above all else: the management's clear hunger to fight for titles and win silverware with the team.

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Salah admitted that the reception he received in Trabzon ranked among the most moving moments of his career, even though he does not consider himself an emotional person by nature.

Seeing the fans at the airport made him feel something that had been missing was now complete. He never expected any of it, he stressed, either at the airport or inside the stadium.

This kind of welcome is extremely rare, he added. The fans celebrated him like this before he had played a single match in the club's shirt, and that left him feeling great joy and emotion.

Salah revealed that his former Liverpool teammates and a host of his friends got in touch after watching the fans' reception.

He still speaks with several Liverpool players, Dominik Szoboszlai among them. Every one of them told him the same thing: they had never seen a player handed such a welcome before he had even played his first match for a new club.

The clips went viral. People right across the world saw them.

Facing Liverpool one day in a Trabzonspor shirt would be extremely difficult, Salah admitted.

Nine years at the English club had forged a special bond with the city and the fans, he explained, and his feelings would be mixed if he ever lined up against his former side.

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Salah reflected on his early days in football, recalling the daily journey to training when he had to take four buses.

That child is still inside him to this day, he affirmed. His ambition hasn't changed. He still believes a person cannot reach the top without a clear goal that drives them to work every day.

This ambition, he added, is the real reason behind his move to Trabzon. He wants a new accomplishment to add to his career.

The Egypt captain opened up on his family's part in his journey, revealing that his mother had never wanted him to play football professionally out of fear for him.

She used to get upset, he explained, because he would leave the house in the morning and not come home until late at night. To her, the future looked far from guaranteed.

His father, by contrast, backed him from the very start. His mother supported him too, though hers came laced with worry and fear. Yet he felt no hardship at the time. He was enjoying every moment he spent on the pitch.

Salah explained that he never runs away from problems, but rather prefers to confront them and search for solutions.

Many people flee from crises because they seem difficult, he pointed out, but he learned throughout his career that understanding the problem is the first step towards solving it.

He added that he had worked hard to develop his character and rid himself of some negative traits. That helped him adapt to different cultures after playing in Egypt, Switzerland, Italy and England, and now in Turkey.

Mohamed Salah has revealed that when he left Egypt, one of his biggest dreams was to achieve something no Egyptian player had managed before.

Seeing children draw hope from his journey fills him with pride, whether in Egypt or across Africa. That feeling, he says, tops any trophy, because his achievements have become a source of inspiration for others.

Asked what he misses most about Egypt, Salah insisted it isn't the food. It's the Egyptian atmosphere itself.

He loves the sense of humour Egyptians are known for. He enjoys sitting on his balcony at home or inside his car, watching people and the way they interact with one another. Just breathing in the air of Egypt, he said, gives him a special feeling.

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Egypt's captain said that if he could travel back in time and meet himself at the start of his journey, he would tell him every hardship was worth it, because it led to an exceptional career and great achievements. He feels proud of every stage he has lived through.

One ritual has never changed. He revealed that from the beginning of his career until now, he calls his mother before every match, and he hasn't stopped doing so for nearly 20 years.

Salah signed off with a direct message to the Trabzonspor faithful, urging them to stand behind the team all season long, especially through the tough spells.

Every player, he insisted, would give their all to win silverware. He dreams of bringing the fans joy with a European title while mounting a serious challenge for the league. Their backing, he stressed, would prove essential to making it happen.

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