Israel’s inability to qualify for major tournaments is matched by another rarity, foreign players from the Israeli league almost never appear at the World Cup or the Euros. That changed only recently, with the first league player in 12 years to feature on the field at a World Cup, and it happened in the United States. Panamanian midfielder Christian Martinez, who plays for Kiryat Shmona, started against Ghana, and on Saturday night into Sunday Kenji Gorre of Maccabi Haifa came on in the 76th minute against Ecuador. Helio Varela of Maccabi Tel Aviv is in Cape Verde’s squad but has not yet played. The article says this thin presence reflects the weakness of the Israeli league, especially in a World Cup that has become the biggest ever and includes many smaller national teams.
Players’ agent Rafi Epstein, who represents Martinez, Ion Nicolaescu, Adrian Ogrise and others, said, “Bringing in well-known players is extremely difficult in a security reality like the one in Israel.” He called it a chicken-and-egg problem, arguing that top players can earn more elsewhere, which raises other leagues while Israel’s level stays roughly the same. He said clubs should target lesser-known national teams and “find these players with a magnifying glass” because they can both strengthen a team and become profitable sales. He cited Martinez, bought for $150,000 while Kiryat Shmona owner Izzy Shnaitzer now asks nearly ten times that amount, and Nicolaescu, who arrived at Beitar Jerusalem for 80,000 euros and was later sold to Heerenveen for 1.3 million euros.
Former national-team coach Elisha Levi said today’s market is different from the era when stars such as Shura Ovarov, Alexander Polukarov, Victor Chanov and Sergei Kandaurov came to Israeli clubs. He said the budgets are no longer there for such names, but clubs can still improve by recruiting from obscure national teams, pointing to Kings Kangwa of Zambia at Beersheba and Luka Gadrani of Georgia at Beitar Jerusalem. Levi added that smaller clubs can help foreign players develop financially and professionally before moves to bigger teams.
Former Beitar coach Eli Cohen, known as “The Sheriff,” recalled nearly signing Pavel Nedved in the mid-1990s after seeing a tape of him, only to discover later that Beitar lacked the money and that he eventually became a Juventus and European legend. Cohen said he long favored Eastern Europe because the football was strong and the living standards and salaries were low enough to attract players, but stressed that modern recruitment requires months of travel, watching, and tracking, not clips or a agent’s word. At Kiryat Shmona, people are hoping Martinez shines and boosts his value, since the 29-year-old is seen as a quality player and potential future sale, though the club would like to keep him. A club source said he is “a super-quality player, committed and responsible, an asset to the dressing room,” and added that a strong tournament could mean “the sky is the limit.”
