Beşiktaş President Adalı on Salah: Not a Defeat, But a Choice
Serdal Adalı did not duck the subject. He went straight at it.
Beşiktaş, he insisted, never lost Mohamed Salah to Trabzonspor. In his version of events, they were never even in the race.
Speaking to Turkish outlets including A Spor, the Beşiktaş president drew a hard line under days of speculation that his club had been outmanoeuvred in the market.
“We did not want the Mohamed Salah deal, and this must be clear to everyone,” Adalı said. “We did not sign him, but not because we lost the deal or were unable to bring him in, that talk is not true.”
That sentence is the crux of his message: this was not a failure, it was a choice.
“We were not a party to the deal”
Adalı pushed back at the narrative that Beşiktaş had been involved in a tug-of-war with Trabzonspor and come off second best. For him, the story grew out of a misunderstanding of comments from coach Onder.
“The coach explained the matter in a clear and respectful way when he said: ‘At the present time’,” Adalı explained. “But his words were understood incorrectly.”
From there, the snowball started rolling. The Beşiktaş president believes the club’s stance was twisted into something it never was.
“We could simply have announced then that we had withdrawn from the negotiations,” he said. “But the matter was portrayed as if we were a party to the deal and then another club came and snatched the player, and that is not true and it bothers me.”
The irritation is obvious. This is a president determined to project control, not regret.
“No one has snatched a player from us”
Since taking office, Adalı has tried to build a reputation as a hard closer in the market. He was not about to let the Salah saga chip away at that image.
“Since I took on the responsibility, no one has been able to snatch away any player we wanted to sign,” he stated.
He also moved quickly to cool any hint of friction with Trabzonspor, the club that ultimately secured Salah.
“Our relationship with Trabzonspor is also good, and nothing of this kind could happen between the two clubs,” Adalı said, making it clear he sees no rivalry behind the scenes, only a misread situation in public.
From his perspective, Beşiktaş are not licking their wounds. They are following their own script.
“Our deals are going as we planned them, and new players will join us starting next week,” he added. “In the end, what will decide matters is what happens on the pitch, while the transfer hype only lasts a few days.”
The message: judge this board by results, not by rumours.
Trossard licence and the Salah chants
Adalı also moved to tidy up another loose end: the registration of Belgian forward Leandro Trossard.
“There is no problem regarding Trossard's licence, the matter was resolved last night, and we are waiting for the documents to arrive from England,” he confirmed.
There is a minor hitch, though. “He will not be ready for the first match, but we hope he will feature in the second.”
Even Trossard’s unveiling could not escape the Salah storm. Cameras caught Adalı’s expression as fans chanted Salah’s name during the Belgian’s presentation, and the clip raced around social media as supposed proof of disappointment.
The president dismissed it.
“Everyone talked about the look on my face, but honestly I did not hear what the fans were chanting at that moment,” he said.
For him, the noise around his reaction is just another part of a story built on assumptions.
“His move was not part of our plans”
Adalı closed with his firmest defence yet of Beşiktaş’s position on Salah. No hesitation, no ambiguity.
“Much was said based on my facial expressions, as if we had lost the deal, but his move was not part of our plans,” he said.
He then lifted the curtain slightly on why the club stepped away.
“The player's agent did things we had not been accustomed to before, and I think everything went in the end as it should,” Adalı revealed. “As time passes the picture will become clear, and everyone will understand why this deal was not completed.”
For now, Salah wears Trabzonspor colours, Trossard waits on his paperwork, and Beşiktaş’s president stands by his version: this was not a defeat in the market, but a decision that will be judged when the season starts to bite.
