It is not every day you see a camel outside a football stadium. But then again, this is not an ordinary football match. This is Mohamed Salah's first start and first home game for Trabzonspor, and ahead of a Europa League play-off qualifying match against Ferencvaros, some fans have decided to welcome their new superstar with a little slice of home.

"Where has he come from?" a bystander asks the camel's handler. "Egypt!" comes the reply, delivered with an unconvincing grin.

Elsewhere outside the ground, a man named Sinan has dressed in full Arabic robes, paired with sunglasses that have "SA" painted on one lens and "LAH" on the other. Someone has — perhaps temporarily — named a mosque after Salah in a small town just outside Trabzon. Kerem and Arda, Dutchmen of Turkish background, have made the trip to Turkey especially for the occasion. "I still can't believe it," says Kerem. Selim, a middle-aged man, is getting his face painted in the team's colours like he is a little boy again.

Nobody Expected Him Here

Nobody expected Salah to be here. Had he left Liverpool a year ago on the back of another Premier League title and his fourth Golden Boot, he would have had his pick of virtually any club in the world. But after a season in which he struggled and became a bit-part player by the end, his options were more limited. He was not keen on Saudi Arabia. America did not hold much appeal. Europe's top clubs were not enthusiastic, the requested salary not quite matching up with his most recent output. Besiktas came close but pulled out when it became too rich for them.

Trabzonspor were the last viable team standing.

It was during the World Cup, while watching Egypt play, that club president Ertugrul Dogan texted manager Fatih Tekke: "Coach, do you want Salah?" At that point, it was a bit like asking someone if they wanted the Koh-i-Noor diamond, lobster for dinner every night, and a time machine. As it turned out, it happened. Carefully handled negotiations resulted in Salah signing for an annual salary of around €17 million (£15m; $20m) — net, not gross — and a city losing its mind.

"I've never seen anything like this before," said Salah after his presentation, when Trabzonspor fans filled their Papara Park stadium to welcome him in thunderous fashion.

The club made quite a fuss of their new arrival. Salah features in a video in which he is welcomed into the home of a grandmother named Khadija Akbash, fed local delicacies, and welcomed into the family. They also flew out Isaac Kearney, a young Liverpool fan who has a rare condition called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome and who went viral after being visited by Salah and others last year. Kearney walked out alongside his idol as a mascot for Thursday's game.

A City Transformed

Trabzon is not a large place — a city of around 300,000 people on the Black Sea coast. It veered from driving rain to punishing sunshine on this August matchday, but in the autumn and winter, a thick mist rolls in from the sea and envelops the city. Combined with the huge, steep hill that looms over the city centre, there can be a claustrophobic vibe. It is a blue-collar, working-class port town that often gets forgotten by the rest of the country. It is not the colossal metropolis of Istanbul, nor the administrative capital of Ankara, nor a tourist destination like Bodrum or Dalaman.

But in a country that loves football with an often terrifying intensity, arguably nowhere loves the game as much as they do here. And more specifically, they love Trabzonspor. They are one of only two teams from outside Istanbul to have won the Super Lig, doing so six times in their glory years between 1976 and 1984, and again in 2022 — the last team not called Galatasaray to be champions.

The blue and maroon colours of the team are everywhere: on the minibuses that form part of the city's public transport network, on fences, flags, bunting in the town square, an umbrella outside a potato stall, the mounts for necklaces and bracelets in a jeweller's window. But mostly, they are on the backs of people. After spending a day in Trabzon, there was one kid in a Barcelona shirt, one in Real Madrid, and a couple of legacy Salah fans in Liverpool tops at the game. Not even a Turkish national team shirt. Every other shirt was Trabzonspor.

"It's our identity," explains Berkan, a fan since he was a boy. "Those other teams… they don't exist here."

The Biggest Signing in Turkish Football History?

On the morning of the game, a Trabzonspor fan named Buruk was asked whether Salah is the biggest signing the club has ever made. He shook his head. Scrolling through names like Marek Hamsik, Daniel Sturridge, Florent Malouda, and all the way back to Jean-Marie Pfaff, it was hard to think who could be bigger. But it turns out the framing was wrong.

"He's the biggest player any Turkish club has ever signed," Buruk said.

Those Trabzonspor shirts are generally split into three categories. There are the ones with no number on the back, keeping things clean and simple. Then there are the ones with 61 — the local postal code and car number-plate identifier, which has become a symbol of the city. And the third group, by rough estimates the majority by a good distance, have "10" and "M Salah" on the back. He has been a Trabzonspor player for a fortnight and he is already the must-have fashion item.

"When a global superstar like Salah comes to Trabzon, it's not just about watching a great footballer," says local journalist Hasan Tuncel. "It means showing the world the football culture and passion that this city and this club have carried for generations. I see this transfer as more than just a sporting move. For Trabzonspor and the city of Trabzon, I believe it could be a real turning point."

The Match Itself

After the camel, the noise and the hysteria, it was easy to forget that Salah actually had to play football. Against Ferencvaros, he looked like a player who had not had a pre-season — which is exactly what he is. He showed a few nice touches, dragged a shot just wide, and hit one outside-of-the-foot cross from the left that zipped into the box and inspired a noise of anticipation from the crowd like they were cresting the peak of a rollercoaster. In stoppage time, Trabzonspor got a free kick just outside the box, perfect for Salah, but his shot was blocked.

There was a sort of gravity that developed around the superstar. In the first half, Salah's team-mates looked to him regardless of whether other options were better, encouraged by the crowd. This happened at least four times, most notably a counter-attack opportunity when left-winger Noah Saviolo was in at least 20 yards of space on one flank but Andre Onana ludicrously punted it to the double-marked Salah on the other.

Then in the second half, it seemed to flip. Salah made runs that were not found, he was bypassed by crosses after moving from the right in a 4-2-3-1 to up front in a 4-4-2, and he did not seem quite certain about his position. It all felt a bit alien, disjointed.

The vast Argentina-born, Hungary-nationalised centre-back Mariano Gomez marked Salah and did not miss any opportunity to rough up his man. The game ended in defeat for Trabzonspor, with Kristoffer Zachariassen scoring the only goal from a first-half header.

What Comes Next

But the result was almost incidental. The stadium was full of people who had come to see Salah, and while ideally he would have given them a goal to take home, merely confirming that this is not a dream and he genuinely is a Trabzonspor player was enough.

Reality will set in from this point. Over the coming weeks and months, Trabzonspor will assess whether they have made a mistake committing so much money to a 34-year-old fresh from nearly a decade of being battered in the Premier League. Salah will assess whether he made a mistake signing for the fourth-biggest team in Europe's ninth-best league.

It could go brilliantly. Trabzonspor came third in the Super Lig last season — once Salah gets going, he could be the difference. There were still a few touches against Ferencvaros that made you remember the old Salah. But that is for another day. For games when there are not camels outside.