Yossi Benayoun

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Personal information
Yossi Benayoun
Full name	Yosef Shai Benayoun
Date of birth	May 5 1980
Place of birth	Dimona, Israel
Nickname	The Diamond
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	West Ham United
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1997-98 1998-02 2002-05 2005-	Hapoel Be'er Sheva Maccabi Haifa Racing de Santander West Ham United	25 (15) 130 (55) 101 (21) 46 (5)
National team**
1998-	Israel	49 (11)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 September, 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 2 September, 2006.

Yossi Benayoun (Hebrew: יוסי בניון), sometimes spelled Benayun DANNY, born May 5, 1980 in Dimona, Israel) is a football player, considered the best Israeli footballer playing today and is also the current national team captain. Playing as an attacking midfielder, occupying the space just behind the striker, Benayoun is known for being a virtuoso, capable of dazzling dribbles and brilliant passes. In Israel he is nicknamed "The Kid" or "The Diamond". In the 2005/2006 Premier League Season, Benayoun began playing for English club West Ham United of the Premier League, after three seasons at Racing Santander.

Benayoun played for the Hapoel Beer Sheva youth team. At the age of 15 he joined the Football Academy of Ajax Amsterdam where he played until he was 17. Due to him feeling lonely and homesick, he left Ajax and returned to Israel and Hapoel Beer Sheva. Many criticized him for letting go of a golden opportunity. His mother welcomed him with open arms as he had proudly represented his country!

At the age of 17 1/2, he was promoted to the Hapoel Be'er Sheva senior team, but could not prevent the club from being relegated to Israel's second division. 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. He thought he had saved his team from relegation, but when he heard on the radio that their relegation rival had won their match, meaning that his team would be relegated nonetheless, his tears of joy turned into tears of grief.

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

Benayoun played for Maccabi Haifa for three seasons, scoring a total of 55 league goals, including two hat-tricks. He scored some of the most beautiful goals in the Israeli Premier League. One example, against Ashdod, saw Benayoun bounce the ball on his leg to pass over the opposing defenders and goalkeeper and score a magnificent goal. He is also known for the "spoon pass", where he arches the ball over the defenders to one of his team's strikers.

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 against Paris Saint-Germain and SV Ried. He made his international debut against Portugal in November 1998.

The following year, Benayoun again performed well, but he will always be remembered for his confrontation with coach Eli Cohen that year, when Benayoun allegedly refused to be substituted during a match. This incident, plus a bad month for the club, ultimately caused Cohen's resignation.

However, in the 2000/2001 season under the guidance of Avraham Grant, Benayoun led Haifa to a first championship after seven years and was chosen as the MVP of the season. The next season, Benayoun helped Maccabi Haifa win another championship, despite suffering from an injury in the beginning of the season. When he returned to play, he combined well with Giovanni Rosso, Raimondas Zutautas and Aiyegbeni Yakubu to win the championship.

In 2003, Benayoun moved to Racing de Santander in Spain, where he became one of the big stars of the club and one of its leading scorers during the 2004/2005 season.

During the World Cup 2006 qualifiers, Benayoun became the leading player of the Israeli national team after equalizing against Cyprus at home (in a game that ended 2-1 to Israel) and scoring twice against Switzerland. In the away game in Cyprus, Benayoun, Israel's traditional black sheep, assisted the winning goal after Nir Davidovich saved a crucial penalty.

After his performances for the Israeli national team and Racing Santander, his name was connected with many teams, such as FK Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham United and Bolton Wanderers, where the Israeli Tal Ben Haim plays. Benayoun ended up signing for West Ham.

Image:Benayoun Signing.jpg

His career at West Ham took off almost immediately, albeit amidst controversy surrounding his perceived shunning of Bolton Wanderers. He made his Premiership debut for West Ham on the opening day of the 2005-06 season (13 August, 2005 against Blackburn Rovers) and he laid on passes for 2 of West Ham's goals in their 3-1 win. He went on to score his first Premiership goal for the club when he netted the closing goal in a 4-0 home victory over Aston Villa on 12 September, 2005. Under manager Alan Pardew the now 25 year old has flourished, producing skilful performances and goals on one of the worlds biggest football stages, including a notably stunning chip from the edge of the box against Fulham (Monday 23 January, 2006).

A player with exceptional flair, creativity and originality has proved many critics wrong by proving not only an invaluable goal assister in the rigours of the Premiership but also by popping up four times in his opening Premiership season. Once doubted for his outwardly meek physical appearance, Benayoun has surprised many with his body application even when faced with strong defenders as he has shown many times when out muscling defenders to score or set up chances. It is these attributes that have established his as one of the leading right sided players in the premiership. He also scored the goal that stopped West Ham's bitter rivals Spurs qualifying for the Champion's League with a last gasp goal on the last game of the season.

In his first season, Benayoun has a chance to make history and despite some immense international displays for his country - he scored twice against Switzerland for example - Benayoun can still do his country proud and make history by starring in the 125th FA Cup Final for West Ham United against European Champions Liverpool F.C.. Unfortunately, West Ham lost to Liverpool after a penalty shoot out. The result was 3-3 after 120 minutes. Benayoun was seen in tears at the final whistle.

He has also appeared in the popular show Footballer's Cribs, as well as MTV Goal Live

[edit] External links

Yossi Benayoun at ElelIsrael.com

West Ham United F.C. - Current Squad
1 Carroll \| 2 Mears \| 3 Konchesky \| 4 Gabbidon \| 5 Ferdinand \| 6 McCartney \| 7 Dailly \| 8 Sheringham \| 9 Ashton \| 10 Harewood \| 11 Etherington \| 12 Cole \| 13 Király \| 14 Pantsil \| 15 Benayoun \| 16 Mascherano \| 17 Mullins \| 18 Spector \| 19 Collins \| 20 Reo-Coker \| 21 Green \| 23 Walker \| 24 Noble \| 25 Zamora \| 26 Newton \| 29 Bowyer \| 30 Tomkins \| 31 Stokes \| 32 Tévez \| Manager: Pardew