Trabzonspor Rejects Fatih Tekke's Resignation After Europa League Exit

Trabzonspor have turned down the “emotional” resignation of head coach Fatih Tekke after their Europa League collapse, choosing stability over shock in the wake of a brutal European exit.

Tekke offered to walk away on Thursday night after his side were thrashed 4-0 by Ferencvaros in Hungary, a defeat that sealed a 5-0 aggregate loss in the play-off round. A team that spent the summer parading marquee signings suddenly looked badly exposed on the continental stage.

By Friday morning, though, the club had made its stance clear. Tekke stays.

In a statement, Trabzonspor said the 48-year-old’s resignation was born from the “intense emotional impact” of the Europa League elimination, and the hierarchy moved quickly to reject it. The message: this was a humiliation, but not a reason to tear everything up.

Tekke, a club figure who guided Trabzonspor to third place in the Super Lig last season, now has to steady a dressing room that arrived in Europe with far bigger ambitions. The club will drop into the Europa Conference League instead and will learn their six league-phase opponents on Friday, a different stage to the one they had imagined but still a platform they cannot afford to waste.

All of this comes after one of the most eye-catching summers in the club’s history.

Trabzonspor, seven-time champions of Turkey, have raided the Premier League elite, bringing in title winners Mohamed Salah and Fabinho. Andre Onana has also returned on loan from Manchester United, adding further star power to a squad suddenly under intense scrutiny.

Salah’s move stunned European football. At 34, the Egypt forward chose Trabzonspor last month after mutually agreeing to terminate his Liverpool contract at the end of last season. He left Anfield as a modern great: the third-highest scorer in Liverpool’s history with 257 goals in 442 games, trailing only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt, after arriving from Roma in 2017.

He has not taken long to leave a mark in his new colours. Salah scored his first two goals for Trabzonspor in a 2-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir on Saturday, a performance that briefly hinted at a smooth transition into a new era.

Then came Ferencvaros, and the reality check.

Now Tekke, backed publicly but bruised privately, must turn a star-studded squad from a Europa League casualty into a serious Conference League contender. With Salah, Fabinho and Onana on the books, anything less will be hard to explain.