Salih Malkoçoğlu

Salih Malkoçoğlu — Biography

Salih Malkoçoğlu is a defensive midfielder from Trabzon who came through the Trabzonspor academy into the first team and moved to the United Arab Emirates club Al Jazira for 4.35 million euros on 10 August 2026. With Trabzonspor's U19s he won the league, was in the squad that reached the UEFA Youth League final, and shared in the 2025-26 Turkish Cup triumph.

He began in the Trabzonspor academy and started playing for the U19s in 2022. In 2022-23 he scored once in 16 U19 league matches, made his Süper Lig debut as a substitute against İstanbul Başakşehir on 6 June 2023, and signed his first professional contract with the club on 3 July 2023. In 2023-24 he scored twice in 21 U19 matches, won the U19 Süper Lig with the team and was added to the first-team squad at the end of the season. In 2024-25 he played 2 Süper Lig matches and 1 Turkish Cup match; in the UEFA Youth League he scored once and made 2 assists in 7 matches, including an assist in the 2-1 semi-final win over Salzburg. In all he made 47 official club appearances and scored 4 goals.

He first pulled on a national shirt on 25 October 2019 with Turkey U15; he played four matches for the U17s in 2021 and two for the U19s in 2024, and appeared for the U20s against Czechia on 10 September 2024. In all he has featured in nine matches for the youth national teams.