Mohamed Salah Transfer Saga: Watermelon Promise in Istanbul
In Istanbul’s fevered transfer summer, one promise cuts through the noise: 500 kilograms of free watermelon if Mohamed Salah signs for Besiktas.
A local fruit vendor, filmed by an Al Jazeera account specialising in Turkish news, has vowed to hand out half a tonne of watermelon the moment the Egyptian star is unveiled in black and white. It is part joke, part marketing stunt, but mostly a snapshot of just how wild the anticipation has become.
Salah, freshly departed from Liverpool after a glittering spell in the Premier League, is now at the centre of a very different kind of saga. Reports in Turkey insist Besiktas are edging closer to landing the “Egyptian pharaoh,” with the deal said to be in its final, delicate phase.
NTVSpor reported that the “crisis” surrounding Salah’s proposed move is close to being resolved. The club, led by president Serdal Adali, has reached an agreement with the player himself. The last barrier is not salary, not contract length, but the commission for his representative, Ramy Abbas.
This is where the negotiation has turned into a slow, tactical grind. Abbas, according to local reports, initially demanded a hefty 35% commission. Besiktas did not storm out of the room. They did not brief against him. They kept talking.
Club management have handled the talks quietly, almost in the shadows, trying to stay calm under the weight of expectation and the financial strain of such a demand. Step by step, Abbas has started to lower his figures, edging the sides closer to a compromise that works for all.
The pressure finally told. With each reduction, the paperwork moved nearer to the signing stage. What began as a gap wide enough to kill the deal has, according to those same reports, narrowed to the point where only “final details” remain.
Inside Besiktas, the mood has shifted from hopeful to confident. The message coming out is that the club is close to officially announcing Salah as their new star, pending a final agreement with his agent. No grandstanding, no countdown clock yet — just the sense that a long chase is about to reach its conclusion.
On the streets, though, the imagination has already sprinted ahead. For one vendor, it means stacking crates of watermelon and waiting for the moment to start giving them away. For Besiktas fans, it means picturing Salah cutting in from the right at Vodafone Park, the roar rising with every touch.
If the commission talks finally fall into place, Istanbul will not just gain a superstar. It will gain a transfer story that began in back rooms and boardrooms and ended, fittingly, among the people — with a mountain of watermelon and a new king of the wings.
