Drogheda United's Historic Friendly Against Trabzonspor
Drogheda United are heading into uncharted territory – and they might just run into Mohamed Salah when they get there.
The League of Ireland club have confirmed a glamour friendly against Turkish giants Trabzonspor at Papara Park on 1 October, the first time the Louth side will play a match on Turkish soil. The date drops neatly into a three-week international break and will double as a late-season mini-camp for Kevin Doherty’s squad.
Whether Salah actually lines out is another matter. The Egyptian star, now the headline act in a star-studded Trabzonspor squad, is due to be on international duty as Egypt face South Sudan in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying on 27 September. With Trabzonspor’s Super Lig campaign resuming the following week away to Samsunspor, there will be little appetite to push their marquee forward in a friendly if he is short on recovery time.
Even without him, the opposition is heavyweight. Trabzonspor have assembled a dressing room full of familiar names, with Salah joined in recent windows by his former Liverpool team-mate Fabinho and ex-Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana, underlining the scale of the occasion for Drogheda.
Yet this is far more than a routine friendly dropped into a quiet part of the calendar. The fixture lands against the backdrop of Ireland and Turkey preparing to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2026, and it leans heavily into a story that stretches back almost two centuries.
Drogheda and Trabzonspor are formally linked as sister clubs, along with Sanlıurfaspor and Siirt Provincial Special Administration Sport, but the roots go much deeper than a modern partnership agreement. Speaking on the RTÉ Soccer podcast in 2020, former Drogheda United PRO Roisin Philips traced the connection all the way to the Great Famine.
"It goes back far longer than 2011 when they announced that we'd become their sister club," she said at the time. "In fact it goes back to the Great Famine in 1845. Drogheda had links with Turkey as a result of the Sultan at the time sending aid over to the Irish people. Boats came up the Boyne in Drogheda. He also sent £1,000 at the time.
"There's been a long history of co-operation between the two countries, from the Turkish side to Ireland."
That history will sit at the heart of the trip. The game will be accompanied by a Turkish television documentary, titled ‘An Gorta Mór – The Star & The Crescent’, which will explore the story of Ottoman humanitarian assistance to Ireland during the Famine and the enduring ties that followed. For Drogheda, the club whose crest carries the crescent and star in tribute to that legacy, this is football as living history.
On the pitch, the match offers Drogheda a sharp change of scenery and a test against a club operating at a very different financial and competitive level. Off it, it drops them into the spotlight of a major Turkish production, a packed Papara Park, and a fanbase that has adopted them as distant cousins.
Whether Salah steps out under the floodlights or watches from the stands, Drogheda United will walk into Trabzon with a story that started long before modern football – and shows no sign of fading.
