Israel may not be a dominant nation in the world of football, nor has it produced too many world-class players. But one of the world’s most talented youngsters plays for current Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa, the club which he signed for in 2008. His name is Eyal Golasa and he is 18 years old. Eyal may not be widely renowned as football top future stars, but the wonderkid has been rapidly improving and developing since his debut in 2008. At the of 14, young Eyal Golasa underwent trials at Tottenham Hotspur and PSG; he was due to move to the French side but the deal failed because he was unable to be granted European citizenship. The Israeli starlet has recently appeared in the papers often as he was set to join Lazio during the winter transfer window. A four and a half year contract was agreed and all that remained was for the player to sign it. However, Eyal changed his mind on the last minute and opted to continue playing in the Israeli Premier League.

Eyal Golasa is a skilful, modern versatile midfielder who is most comfortable playing an attacking midfielder role; he also can play as a winger or a central midfielder. He has similar characteristics to Barcelona boys Xavi and Iniesta, as well as Mezut Ozil. He has very good touch on the ball, the ability to use both feet, has a great vision and is a great dribbler. He enjoys making fast offensive bursts in the final 3rd of the pitch and has an eye for the goal. He frequently tries scoring long distance goals, but his accuracy and power have to be heavily refined before he will become a deadly long range striker on the ball. In recent times, he has been improving his finishing attributes and Maccabi has already benefitted from his vital goals. In order for Eyal Golasa to develop into a solid, elegant, all round midfielder, he needs to improve on his strength and fitness; this will then allow him to enter the football elite. Moving to a big club directly may not be the best idea, but playing in the Dutch, French or Portuguese league for a couple of seasons is the perfect bridge to prepare for him for Europe’s biggest leagues.


The future looks bright for Eyal Golasa; sooner or later, like any ambitious talented young football star, he will want to make a move to a bigger and competitive league. This move will also be done because the player will want to further develop as a footballer and achieve new challenges at a large scale. During the Champions League, Maccabi played against Bayern Munich and in the game which Bayern won 3-0; Eyal made a name for him and impressed the Bavarian coaches and scout. Bayern Munich has been closely monitoring him and rumoured to be interested in signing the star. Also in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen have claimed been interested in him as well as other clubs. In England, Isreali Portsmouth manager Avram Grant is chasing the attacking midfielder. Along with the interest from Lazio, numerous Italian clubs are looking at him. There will be many offers coming in for the attacking midfielder but Italy or Germany will be the most likely destinations. It won’t take long until Eyal Golasa becomes a key figure in the Israeli national team and maybe one day we will be able to see him guide his country to a major international tournament. Golasa recently completed his first cap for Israel and there will be many more to follow.

Eyal Golasa is a still a relatively unknown name outside Israel. But one can bet this exciting midfielder will be well known in the future. This youngster, who will celebrate his 18th birthday on October 7th, is already one of the most important players of Maccabi Haifa , Israel's champions and representative in the UEFA Champions League.

In spite of Haifa's 3-0 home loss against Bayern Munich, it was clear to all who saw the match that Golasa is a real gem. Maccabi Haifa have produced some magnificent midfielders in the past, so Golasa has legends to look up to and follow. Two of the most famous are retired playmaker Eyal Berkovic and current Liverpool player Yossi Benayoun.

Golasa resembles Benayoun in many ways. Both of them came to Maccabi Haifa at a very young age – Benayoun from Hapoel Beer Sheva and Golasa from the youth Academy of Beitar Nes Tubrok. Golasa wears the number 15 shirt, a shirt that hasn't been worn by any green player since the departure of Benayoun to Spain in 2002.

The resemblance between the two doesn't end there, but also in their mentality and approach to the game. Golasa is a fearless player, who almost never loses his temper and has immense determination to succeed. His technical abilities of dribbling and passing (apart from shooting) are of a high caliber and under the right guidance he could evolve into a high level player.

Golasa is a very versatile player. As a youth player he was a playmaker positioned only behind the strikers and moves freely in the danger zone. Since his arrival to Haifa in the summer of 2008 he developed his skills and played a lot on both wings. But more than that, he developed his defensive abilities so much that he became a central box-to-box midfielder.

Despite his small frame, the 1.73m tall midfielder is a real fighter on the field. He isn’t afraid to go into a tackle and has fine tuning and positional sense in the middle of the park. He can provide wonderful passes to his team mates and dribble easily past defenders, even though his speed is not extraordinary – just like Benayoun, with better defensive ability.

Golasa, who started playing football at the age of 5, underwent trial periods while he was 14-years-old with French side PSG and England's Tottenham. He tried to get European citizenship in order to sign with PSG, but he didn't succeed and went back to Israel. He joined Maccabi Haifa together with his twin brother Orel (a left-sided defender) in 2008 for a sum of 2 million shekels (around 360k euro), signed a 6-year-contract and since then has enjoyed great success.

Last season Golasa played mainly as a substitute, recorded 27 appearances and one super-goal against MS Ashdod. From the beginning of the current season he became a first XI player, and led Haifa to the Champions League. So far he has three goals and one assist in eight matches – but his overall contribution to the team is much more than just numbers. His all-around ability, the fact that he plays like a mature player and always asks for the ball points out that this is a rare talent in Israel.

Golasa has one main weakness he must work on in order to develop. His finishing in front of goal and the accuracy of his long-distance shots are not great. It is clear that with extensive training, he can improve his shooting as he has impressive technique and the necessary power to score goals from long range.