Captain Israel Yossi Benayoun unresolved adult his cleats
Yossi Benayoun, maybe Israel’s biggest ever soccer player, announced his retirement from active play on Thursday.
The Dimona local was now personification for Beitar Jerusalem of a Israel Premier League and will hang adult his cleats during a age of 38.
The “Diamond from Dimona” began his shining career during a Hapoel Dimona girl dialect and afterwards changed to Hapoel Beersheba. After a spell during a Ajax girl academy, Benayoun returned to Beersheba and suffered relegation with a bar during a finish of a 1997/98 season.
Following a season, Benayoun changed to Maccabi Haifa, where he won back-to-back championships, that paved a approach for his pierce to Europe when he assimilated Racing Santander in 2002.
Following 3 years in Spain, Benayoun began his English Premier League career and sealed with West Ham United, where he spent dual seasons before transferring to Liverpool.
The Israeli star featured in 92 matches with a Reds while scoring 18 goals over 3 campaigns. One of his biggest goals, if not a greatest, was his Champions League round-of-16 82nd-minute header off a Fabio Aurelio giveaway flog opposite Real Madrid during a Bernabeu.
Benayoun changed again in 2010, this time to Chelsea, where he won a Europa League pretension in 2012/13. He was also loaned out twice during his reign with a Blues, to Arsenal and West Ham.
After a 2013/14 deteriorate with Queens Park Rangers, Benayoun returned to Israel where he played for Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Maccabi Petah Tikva and Beitar Jerusalem.
In 637 matches, Benayoun scored 168 goals over his 20+ year career.
On a general front, Benayoun done 102 appearances for a Israel National Team and scored 24 goals. He is a many capped blue-and-white player.
“The law is that zero we gifted over my career prepared me for a preference to stop playing,” pronounced Benayoun on Thursday in a farewell Instagram post. “Soccer has been a partial of me from a day we schooled to walk. we am happy with my soccer journey, from tiny Dimona by Beersheba and Haifa, 12 years of Europe and behind to my country.
“I never quit a inhabitant group since we was always peaceful to uncover adult for it. Representing my nation, wherever we was, was an constituent partial of my pride. It is critical for me to conclude a fans: we gave me adore wherever we went. we truly adore you, conclude each such impulse and delight it to my final day.”
Joshua Halickman, a Sports Rabbi, covers Israeli sports and organizes Israel sports adventures for tourists and residents. Follow a Sports Rabbi on Twitter @thesportsrabbi or revisit www.sportsrabbi.com. Feel giveaway to hit a Sports Rabbi around email at
sportsrabbi9@gmail.com
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