Yossi Benayoun

Yossi Shai Benayoun (יוסי שי בניון; born 5 May 1980) is an Israeli former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

He spent most of his career in Israel and England and captained the Israel national team.

Born in Dimona, he is sometimes nicknamed "The Diamond from Dimona" in Israel.

As of 2023, he has been the sporting director of the Israel national team.

Benayoun played for Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Maccabi Haifa before moving to Racing de Santander in Spain.

Three years later he moved to the Premier League with West Ham United, and later Liverpool.

In the last match of the season against Maccabi Haifa, Benayoun got a penalty kick in the 90th minute.

Haifa's goalkeeper, Nir Davidovich, saved the shot but Benayoun scored the rebound to give his team the win.

However, their relegation rival had won their match, meaning that his team would be relegated nonetheless.

Seconds after scoring, while celebrating the winning and what he thought to be a league survival goal, Benayoun found out about the relegation and burst into tears.

Benayoun finished as the league's joint fourth-leading goalscorer that season, with 15 goals in 25 appearances.

After that season, Benayoun moved to Maccabi Haifa in a deal signed by Ya'akov Shahar (Maccabi Haifa's president) and Eli Zino (the former Be'er Sheva president), and it was agreed that the two clubs would share the profits from selling Benayoun to a European club.

At the age of 16, he was promoted to the Hapoel Be'er Sheva senior team for the 1997–98 Liga Leumit, but could not prevent the club from being relegated to Israel's second division.

A full international for twenty years from 1998 to 2018, Benayoun is Israel's most capped player of all time with 102 caps, and their joint third top scorer with 24 international goals.

Benayoun holds the position of sporting director for Beitar Jerusalem, the club that he last played for.

Benayoun was born in Dimona, Israel, to a family of Sephardic Moroccan Jewish descent.

His father Dudu Benayoun was a footballer who played for Hapoel Dimona as well.

Jason Burt of The Independent reports that Benayoun's talent was spotted at the age of nine.

At the age of 11 he was labelled a genius, and by 13, his face appeared on the cover of Israeli magazines.

Benayoun began to play with Hapoel Be'er Sheva.

To attend training, he hitchhiked the 60 km roundtrip with his father.

When he was 15, Ajax invited Benayoun and his family to the Netherlands.

In 1998, under the guidance of Dusan Uhrin and Daniel Brailovsky, Benayoun and Haifa reached the quarterfinals of the Cup Winners' Cup, and he scored a late equaliser against Paris Saint-Germain and also against SV Ried in a 4–1 victory.

Benayoun also scored 16 goals in 29 matches for Haifa in the 1998–99 Liga Leumit, finishing the season as the equal eighth leading goalscorer for his team.

In 1999, he confronted his manager Eli Cohen, when Benayoun allegedly refused to be substituted during a match.

This incident, plus a bad month for the club, ultimately caused Cohen's resignation.

In the 1999–2000, the maiden season of the newly formed Israeli Premier League, Benayoun scored 19 goals in 38 matches for Maccabi Haifa, and was the league's third highest goalscorer.

In the 2000–01 season under the guidance of Avram Grant, Benayoun led Haifa to a first championship after seven years and was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the season, after amassing 13 goals in 37 matches.

Another successful season placed him as the league's equal sixth highest goalscorer.

The next season, Benayoun helped Maccabi Haifa win another championship, despite suffering from an injury at the beginning of the season.

When he returned to play, he combined well with Đovani Roso, Raimondas Žutautas, and Yakubu to win the championship.

In his last season with Maccabi Haifa, Benayoun scored 7 times in 33 matches.

Benayoun made 130 appearances for Haifa, scoring 55 goals.

In 2002, Benayoun moved to Racing de Santander in Spain's La Liga, scoring five goals in 31 matches his first season (2002–03 La Liga), seven goals in 35 matches his second (2003–04 La Liga), and nine goals in 35 matches his third (2004–05 La Liga), the latter including a hat-trick against Deportivo La Coruña in a 4–1 away victory.

In total, he made 101 appearances for Racing, scoring 21 goals.

Santander opted to cash in on Benayoun by selling him to his agents Pini Zahavi and Ronen Katsav for €3.5 million.

In 2010, he signed for Chelsea, where he was used rarely, being loaned to Arsenal and back to West Ham, but nonetheless won the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League.

After that, he was released by the club and spent a season in the Football League Championship with Queens Park Rangers before returning to Maccabi Haifa.

By his 16th birthday, he was the Ajax youth team's highest scorer and best player, and Ajax duly offered Benayoun a four-year professional contract.

However, Benayoun and his family found the adjustment to Amsterdam difficult, and they returned to Israel after eight months.