Onder Ozin, the sports director of the Turkish club Besiktas, revealed the details of the negotiations conducted by the club with Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, confirming that contacts between the two parties reached advanced stages before stumbling due to financial aspects.
Ozin said in a press conference: "Since we assumed responsibility, we began implementing our technical plan, and our first steps were contracting with Vincenzo Italiano, and only 20 minutes after the signing ceremony on June 6, we began negotiations with Mohamed Salah."
He added: "Our club contacted a world star the size of Mohamed Salah, and we also saw the great marketing potential he enjoys due to his wide fame. We held three meetings with him, during which I focused on explaining the Besiktas project, the team roster, the playing style, and our goals, while the coach met with him the next day to discuss tactical details, and thus the technical aspect was completely concluded."
Besiktas: The financial aspect is the reason behind delaying Salah's deal
The sports director of Besiktas explained that the negotiations began to falter with the transition to the financial file, saying: "When the financial aspect began, specifically as of July 21, the pace of negotiations slowed, and requests emerged that would cause financial stagnation for the club."
He continued: "Mohamed Salah is a world star and an athlete we respect greatly, and I think he may not have been aware of all the financial details that were presented, but Besiktas has principles and policies that it cannot abandon, and I see that the club president made the right decision by stopping at this point."
Ozin stressed the club's adherence to its financial policy, confirming: "Preserving the club's values is much more important than contracting with any player, no matter his value. There are legal and financial limits that cannot be exceeded, because exceeding them may put the club in an illegal position, which we will not allow."
He concluded his statements regarding the future of the deal by saying: "Negotiations with Mohamed Salah are temporarily suspended at the present time, and I cannot say that they have ended definitively. Besiktas's offer is clear, and if a response comes to it, it can be evaluated, but we will not present a new offer. We were informed that the player is negotiating with another party, so this is his decision, but as for us, the file stops at this point."