Mohamed Salah has still got it after glorious hat-trick vs. Galatasaray
Turkish cuisine is one of the richest in the world, the home of kebabs, sweet filo pastries and stuffed vegetables that make mouths salivate far beyond its borders.
Equally, the Turkish Super Lig is a rich and sensual experience far beyond the cookie-cutter leagues of Western Europe.
Fans go bonkers for player unveilings and infuse training sessions with the spirit of a raucous carnival. Matches are not for those who value peace, quiet and serenity.
The Galatasaray team that began Saturday as table-toppers have Victor Osimhen up front. He is currently injured, but is genuinely one of the world’s top 10 strikers.
Their wingers were Leroy Sane and Raphael Leao, also players with the talent for more prominent stages.
The metaphor crumbles when you spot Lucas Torreira in midfield and crumbles entirely upon glancing at a backline marshalled by Davinson Sanchez, but still. This is not the backwater of popular imagination.
And yet Galatasaray have been humbled by a rampant Trabzonspor. Who you might remember signing a certain Mohamed Salah this summer. The same Salah who’s just scored a Father Time-defying treble.
Salah was long-tipped for Saudi Arabia, the abdication of serious competition and long hours counting his millions. The MLS was mooted as an alternative.
Instead, one of modern football’s genuine icons took a more leftfield decision. Sure, Trabzonspor aren’t paying him in burek.
But Salah made it clear he wanted to stay in a European league, inspired by a conversation with club president Ertugrul Dogan.
“I think his ambition and also what he tried to build in the club. That’s what he convinced me with,” Salah said in an interview with the club’s in-house media channel.
It didn’t start well, with Trabzonspor bundled out of the Europa League and manager Fatih Tekke resigning immediately after.
A season in the Conference League awaits, but the former Liverpool star had been in good goalscoring form before Saturday’s match.
Four minutes had passed before Salah was racing clear, slotting past Ugurcan Cakir who was mentally still in the dressing room. One nil.
Stung by their opponents’ impudence, Galatasaray poured forward for a universe-correcting equaliser. But this simply left the entire peninsula free for Salah to wreak havoc.
The 34-year-old set up Nicolo Saviolo, who you may remember playing for Aston Villa a few years back, to curl the second beyond the flailing Cakir.
And the game was effectively gift-wrapped by the interval. Sanchez was dispossessed and Salah did the rest.
It was the hat-trick clincher that will produce the most double takes. Throughout his final season at Liverpool, Salah had effectively slowed to the pace of an elderly crab.
Never the most physically dynamic player at his peak, he seemed set for an elderly statesman role at Trabzonspor. A future walking football champion, or contender to Lionel Messi’s throne.
Perhaps it was the heat. Or Galatasaray’s defence filled their boots with cement at an unspecified point in the second-half.
But we were not expecting Salah to race clear of the opposition, in a 100-metre dash more fitting of the Olympic Games, before firing into the far corner.
We don’t want to resort to the cliche of how form is temporary, but class is permanent. But our brains are malleable mush at the best of times and nothing else quite defines Salah’s exploits.
He has now scored seven goals and provided two assists in six Super Lig matches to help Trabzonspor up to fifth. They are now within three points of an ashen-faced Galatasaray.
Salah tops the goalscoring chart in Turkey, just as he did four times in the Premier League. The richness of Turkish football is clearly sitting well with him.
