Apparently, Nigerian striker, Yakubu Ayegbeni, has no offers from clubs in Europe and he is going to stay and finish out the season in Israel. Meanwhile, his agent Pini Zehavi is trying to find him a club in England. This is good news to Maccabi Haifa fans. On Shabbat (Saturday) the club saw an embarrassing loss to Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3-2 at Kiryat Eliezer Stadium in Haifa. Two months ago, Ayegbeni was at his tops with Maccabi Haifa putting in strong performances in the Champions League. But when Maccabi Haifa fell out of the headlines, so did Ayegbeni. Now Maccabi Haifa is asking more for their Nigerian gem.
The asking price is: 8 million dollars. This would be a huge profit for Maccabi Haifa who signed him from Julius Vega in Nigeria at the age of 15 and for a small fee.
How are foreign players finding life in Israel now with respect to the security situation? I read that Osterc of Tel Aviv finally decided to bolt after his teammates were nearly gunned down at a restaurant celebrating their win over Parma. Have others said anything?
Generally the foreign players in Israel are get used to the chances of a terror attack. One can argue that they understand the situation better because alot of players in Israel come from war torn countries. Usually a player is asked to come for a trial and if the country finds favour in his eyes, then he will sign on. There was one incident with Hapoel Tel Aviv's Gabor Halmai. Halmai is Hungarian and decided on sending his family back to Hungary. He said that it is only temporary. Other players actually become very "Israeli". Giovanni Rosso of Maccabi Haifa has always said that he feels Israel's pain and would fight for the country if he wasn't too old.
Motzet hen be enav doesn't translate into finds favour in his eyes. It should read: "Usually a player is asked to come in for a trial, and if he likes the country he will sign on." I make the same mistake sometimes. Shalom
îä àúä øåöä îîðé? àðé çåùá åàæ àðé ëåúá Anyway, apparently Yakubu has two offers from Bayer 04 Leverkusen and some other club outside England, but he has told his agent, Pini Zehavi, that he only wants to play in England.
Ayegbeni to Portsmouth Maccabi Haifa has loaned Ayegbeni to Portsmouth. If they are promoted to the Premiership next season (they currently lead division one), he will be sold. The loan fee is $500,000. The transfer fee, if it goes through, would be $4.5 million, a record for a player from an Israeli team. http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=248437
BarcaFan, Not to question your Hebrew credentials, but it looks like you made a mistake this time too. You see, in English "finds favour in his eyes" means the same thing as "likes it," so KYHS' translation was correct, even if his was more literal and yours more idiomatic...
$8 million is not that high for a 20 yr old who has already proven his credentials by scoring Champions League goals against top European clubs.
As noted in another thread (which should probably be merged), Ayegbeni has been loaned to English First Division Leaders Portsmouth. The loan fee is 300,000 pounds ($481,049). If Portsmouth is promoted to the premiership, he will be purchased for 4.2 million pounds ($6,734,697). http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=253874&cc=5901 Not quite $8 million, but that's a pretty sweet fee given the market these days. Good luck to him.