分类： sports

One of modern football’s most decorated forwards, Mohamed Salah, is on the cusp of completing a blockbuster move to Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor, after touching down in Istanbul to a rapturous welcome from hundreds of cheering fans this Wednesday.

The 34-year-old Egypt captain, who departed Liverpool at the end of last season following a nine-year trophy-laden spell on Merseyside, stepped out of Ataturk Airport wearing Trabzonspor’s iconic claret and sky blue kit, stopping to greet and interact with the jubilant crowd that had gathered to catch a first glimpse of their new star signing.

Salah leaves Anfield as one of the club’s greatest ever players, having scored 257 goals across all competitions, led Liverpool to two Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy, a Club World Cup, Uefa Super Cup, an FA Cup and two EFL Cups. Individually, he claimed the Premier League Golden Boot four times and won the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year award three times, in 2018, 2022 and 2025. His final full season at Liverpool saw him contribute 29 goals and 18 assists to the club’s 2024-25 title triumph, but a falling out with former Reds head coach Arne Slot limited his playing time in the following campaign, where he only managed seven league goals before his exit.

Since Salah announced he would leave Liverpool a year early from his contract extension, the global football community has speculated heavily over his next destination. A strong run at the recent World Cup, where Egypt reached the round of 16 for the first time in their history before a narrow defeat to Argentina, stoked further transfer interest. A move to another Turkish top-flight side, Besiktas, was reportedly close, but financial disagreements ultimately collapsed the deal, paving the way for Trabzonspor to step in with an agreement.

As a free agent following his Liverpool exit, Trabzonspor was able to allocate the full weight of their transfer budget to meeting Salah’s wage demands, with the exact terms of his compensation still undisclosed. The Turkish club teased the impending arrival on social media Tuesday night, posting a video showing the Egyptian Pyramids displayed next to their home ground Papara Park, followed by an official confirmation that negotiations with Salah were underway. The club also shared a live tracking map for Salah’s incoming flight to Istanbul, prompting the mass fan turnout at the airport. In a pre-arrival video posted to social media from his private jet, Salah told supporters: “Trabzon, are you ready? See you very soon.”

Trabzonspor, nicknamed the Black Sea Storm, is one of only six Turkish clubs to have won the Super Lig, with a trophy history that includes seven league titles — six of which came between 1976 and 1984, before a 38-year drought ended with their most recent title in 2022. The club finished third in last season’s Super Lig, eight points behind champions Galatasaray, which guarantees them a spot in European competition for the upcoming campaign. They will enter the Europa League play-offs, with a drop down to the Conference League if they fail to progress to the main league phase.

Salah’s signing is the biggest in Trabzonspor’s history, and joins the club alongside former Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge and ex-Arsenal winger Nicolas Pepe. The club’s current squad also features on-loan Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana and Cape Verde World Cup stars Wagner Pina and Sidny Lopes Cabral.

Industry analysts widely view this transfer as one of the biggest in Turkish football history. The Super Lig has previously attracted global icons including Roberto Carlos, Didier Drogba, Robin van Persie, Samuel Eto’o, Mesut Ozil and Wesley Sneijder, and this season is already stacked with elite talent: N’Golo Kante and Ederson will feature for Fenerbahce, while Victor Osimhen, Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane will line up for Galatasaray.

For Trabzonspor, the capture of Salah marks a major strategic shift. While the club has long competed for domestic titles, it has in recent years prioritized developing young talent and recruiting players with high resale value. The Turkish top flight has grown increasingly dominated by Istanbul giants Fenerbahce and Galatasaray in recent seasons, leading to waning supporter enthusiasm for Trabzonspor and consistent undercapacity crowds at Papara Park. The signing of Salah is designed to reverse this trend: club officials expect his arrival to draw lapsed supporters back to matches, drive massive shirt sales, and expand Trabzonspor’s commercial reach across the Middle East, tapping into a new global fanbase and driving increased interest among the Arab community both in Trabzon and among international visitors to the city. The blockbuster move has already injected a renewed wave of excitement among the club’s fanbase, marking a bold new chapter for the Black Sea Storm.

South African swimming legend Chad le Clos, fresh off breaking the all-time Commonwealth Games medal record, has faced an unthinkable personal tragedy: his long-time Cape Town apartment was completely destroyed by a large apartment block fire that also claimed the life of one of his neighbors.

The 34-year-old swimming star, who claimed his historic 21st Commonwealth Games medal – a bronze in the men’s 4×100-meter medley relay – on July 29 while competing in Glasgow, Scotland, was not home when the blaze broke out the following evening. The fire spread rapidly through the residential building in Sea Point, a scenic oceanside Cape Town suburb, reducing le Clos’ apartment to ashes. He noted in a public social media statement that he had lived in the home for more than 10 years, and that no personal belongings could be recovered from the wreckage.

In the same Instagram post shared Tuesday, le Clos extended heartfelt condolences to the family of an elderly neighbor who lost his life in the incident. The long-time neighbor had lived alongside the swimmer for many years before the tragedy. Despite his own devastating loss, le Clos announced that his personal foundation would launch a fundraising drive to support other displaced residents in rebuilding their lives and homes after the fire.

A decorated competitor with a decades-long elite career, le Clos claimed Olympic gold in the 200-meter butterfly at the 2012 London Games, and has amassed four total Olympic medals and 16 world championship titles throughout his professional career. Glasgow 2014 marked his fifth appearance at the Commonwealth Games, and the athlete has previously confirmed his plans to continue competing through the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

South African swimming legend Chad le Clos, who just etched his name into the record books as the most decorated athlete in Commonwealth Games history, has revealed that just one night after his historic achievement, a devastating blaze destroyed his long-time Cape Town apartment and claimed the life of one of his neighbors.

Last week in Glasgow, Le Clos secured his 21st all-time Commonwealth Games medal when he and his South African teammates claimed bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay. The 34-year-old’s third medal of the 2026 Games pushed him past Australian swimmer Emma McKeon to claim the top spot on the all-time Commonwealth Games medal table, adding to a silver he won in the mixed 4x100m medley relay and another bronze in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay earlier in the competition.

Only days after this career milestone, Le Clos shared the tragic news on his official Instagram account, opening up about the shock of losing the Sea Point apartment he had called home for more than a decade. “It has taken me a while to process this heartbreaking tragedy,” he wrote. “On the evening of 30 July, amid breaking the all-time Commonwealth record, a fire started in my apartment block, which quickly spread to my home. Sadly my home, where I’ve lived for more than a decade, burnt down and there is nothing left to salvage.”

Local reports confirm the blaze killed a 93-year-old resident of the building, who had been Le Clos’ neighbor for many years. The Olympic champion paid tribute to the victim in his post, extending his deepest sympathies to the man’s family and loved ones. “No words can truly ease a loss like this, but I hope the family knows that the thoughts of an entire community are with them,” the Durban-born athlete said.

Le Clos also reached out to other residents whose properties and lives were upended by the fire, emphasizing the strength of Sea Point’s close community bonds. “To my fellow neighbours whose homes and lives have been severely affected by this fire, please know that you are not alone. This is a tight-knit community and it is in moments like these that we lean on one another,” he added.

In response to the disaster, Le Clos has launched a fundraising initiative to support displaced and affected neighbors as they work to rebuild their lives. This tragedy comes on the heels of one of the proudest moments of Le Clos’ decades-long competitive career, which includes one of the most iconic upsets in Olympic swimming history. At the 2012 London Games, a 20-year-old Le Clos dethroned American swimming icon Michael Phelps to win gold in the 200m butterfly — an event Phelps had not lost since 2001, during a career that would earn him 14 Olympic gold medals.

Le Clos first competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 in Delhi, where he earned his first medal in the competition at just 18 years old. Across five editions of the multi-sport event, he has now collected 7 gold, 5 silver, and 9 bronze medals to secure his place in Commonwealth history. Over his entire professional career, Le Clos has also earned four Olympic medals, 16 world championship titles, and 10 African regional titles, cementing his status as one of South Africa’s most successful competitive swimmers of all time.

Weeks of world-class athletic competition at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow drew to a close on Sunday, but the event has been overshadowed by an ongoing investigation: multiple participating athletes have vanished from official team accommodation and failed to return home with their national delegations.

Police Scotland confirmed this week that it has received formal reports of several athletes remaining unaccounted for in the days after the closing ceremony. Inquiries into their whereabouts are still active, authorities said, with early coordination already underway with the UK Home Office to clarify the circumstances of their disappearances.

Local Ugandan media has identified four missing athletes all members of the country’s boxing delegation as Nuhu Batte, Angel Katushabe, Ibrahim Kemis and Emily Nakalema. Uganda-based sports outlet NBS Sport reported that it has spoken directly to one of the four missing boxers, who confirmed the group’s intention to seek asylum in Scotland. The athlete told the outlet the group made the decision to stay in the UK to pursue better training resources and professional boxing opportunities than they could access in their home country, and appealed to the Ugandan public for understanding, asking not to be condemned for their choice. A spokesperson for Team Uganda told BBC Scotland News the delegation would not issue any public comment on the incident, and the remaining members of the Ugandan contingent have already completed their departure back to Uganda.

A separate report from Pakistani newspaper Pakistan Today added another missing athlete to the list: Pakistani boxer Qudratullah, who was not found in his Games accommodation when team officials prepared for the return flight and did not board the plane with his teammates.

This is not the first time Glasgow has hosted the Commonwealth Games and seen athletes go missing post-event. During the 2014 edition of the Games, also held in the Scottish city, dozens of athletes disappeared after competition concluded, with many seeking asylum in the UK and others vanishing entirely. High-profile cases from 2014 include two Ugandan rugby players who disappeared and later resurfaced playing for a semi-professional side in Cardiff; one of those players, Philip Pariyo, was ultimately sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being convicted of rape in the Welsh city. Another 2014 missing athlete, Cameroonian weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II, stayed in the UK to seek asylum after escaping political unrest in his home country, and returned to compete for Great Britain at the 2026 Glasgow Games, winning a silver medal.

Under Glasgow 2026’s official event policy, all athletes were required to leave official Games accommodation within 48 hours of their final competition to make way for departing operations. In a statement this week, Glasgow 2026 spokesperson Sophie Ashcroft noted that the event had welcomed 3,000 athletes from 74 Commonwealth nations and territories over 11 days of competition. “As athletes and support staff leave the city, we continue to work closely with wider partners – including Police Scotland, Border Force and UK Visas & Immigration – to ensure a safe and secure conclusion to the Games,” she said.

UK authorities typically implement enhanced entry screening for athletes and staff ahead of major international sporting events held on British soil, working closely with event organizers to strengthen entry controls. The Home Office has confirmed that any asylum claims submitted by the missing athletes will be assessed individually, with each case evaluated based on its specific facts and supporting evidence.

Beyond the missing athletes investigation, the 2026 Commonwealth Games has marked a key turning point for the quadrennial event. After original hosts Victoria, Australia withdrew from hosting duties amid funding disputes, Glasgow stepped in to organize a scaled-back edition featuring just 10 sports across four city venues. Organizers say the streamlined format has “saved and reinvented” the competition, securing its future for future editions.