According to One.co.il, Charleston Battery's Joe Kuzminsky will move to Maccabi Haifa in Israel after he agreed terms. Kuzminsky apparently is of Jewish heritage and will not count as a foreigner for the club. Interesting that Maccabi Haifa will now have two Jewish American goalkeepers. Wonder what happens to the Israeli ones.
Goalkeeper Joe Kuzminsky Agrees Terms With Maccabi Haifa (in Hebrew) My apologies, I missed a key point in the article. This is apparently a loan from Charleston Battery with Haifa receiving an option to purchase. Getting To Know Joe Kuzminsky (in Hebrew) Sport5 has also gone a bit in depth into Joe and his stats in the USL Championship.
Apparently, this kind of all started because of Cohen's success in Israel and Maccabi Haifa now believing that the USL is a strong enough level to recruit from. One.co.il is reporting that Kuzminsky was in Israel already two weeks ago participating in Birthright Israel, a program that gives young Jews from around the world the opportunity to see Israel free of charge or at a reduced cost.
Transaction is official according to Maccabi Haifa. Brought in as a back-up to Josh Cohen and due to the injury to the former starter, Guy Haimov. This is a until the end of the season with an option to buy.
Maccabi Haifa 5-0 Hapoel Tel Aviv Kuzminsky backs up Josh Cohen again and sits this one on the bench.
Israeli site, One, is reporting that Haifa is unlikely to buy Kuzminsky at the end of his loan. They have one goalkeeper returning from loan for next season, one coming off injury and another being promoted to the first team from the youth ranks. Disappointed not to see him play in any matches. Would like to see what he is made of.
Did he get any PT in the reserve team's competitions? Players who don't make it at the big boys (and Maccabi Haifa are big in Israeli terms) get scouted in reserve team games and picked up by the smaller sides.
Nope. I see no mentions of him anywhere. Typically he would have played in the Toto Cup but I don't see anything there.
Maccabi Haifa 3-2 Nof HaGalil Haifa played a friendly today ahead of the restart of the Premier League season. Kuzminsky came on in the 55th minute for Josh Cohen and gave up a game tying goal in the 87th minute. Two minutes later Haifa re-took the lead and ended the match on the right foot against the National League bottom dwellers. Word is that Kuzmisnky's deal will be extended for one month due to the COVID-19 break but unlikely that they will exercise the option to buy him.
He's expected back at Charleston this season. https://www.charlestonbattery.com/news_article/show/1139846