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Birthdate:
05.05.1980
Birthplace: Dimona, Israel
Other clubs: Maccabi Haifa, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Racing Santander, West Ham, Chelsea
Bought from: West Ham
Signed for LFC: £5000000 13.07.2007
International debut: 18.11.1998 vs. Portugal
International caps: 78/20 (03.03.2010)
Liverpool debut:
15.08.2007
Last appearance: 02.05.2010
Debut goal: 25.09.2007
Last goal: 29.04.2010
Contract expiry: 02.07.2010
LFC league games/goals: 92 / 18
Total LFC games/goals: 134 / 29
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Player Notes:
Benayoun was Israel's most promising player when he joined the famed Ajax academy at age 15. He had taken his whole family with him, but some of them pined for their desert home in Israel. Benayoun had impressed everyone at Ajax and was offered a four year contract, which he had to decline for his family's sake and he returned to Israel after only one year. "The Kid" was criticized for returning home so early and claimed he would never realise his potiental. He joined his local club, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, and while it was relegated, he starred for the team and scored 15 goals. Benayoun thought he had saved his team from relegation, when he scored for Be'er Sheva in the last minute of their last League match, but the other relegation candidates also scored and Benayoun's team went down. A photograph of Benayoun taken right after the game shows his tearful disappointment. The photo struck the heart of Israel and "The Kid" was beloved again.
Benayoun was transferred to Maccabi Haifa where he blossomed at club and international level. He was voted player of the year as Maccabi won its first title in seven years in the 2000-2001 season, and a year later triumphed in the League again. In 2003, the midfielder was on his way to northern Spain and Racing Santander. Benayoun starred in a struggling Santander side and established a good reputation that Rafa was very aware of. After 101 League appearances and 21 goals Santander was forced to cash in because of financial dire straits. West Ham parted with 2,5 million pounds for the Israeli playmaker in the summer of 2005. He scored five goals and made seven assists as The Hammers finished a respectable ninth in the 2005-2006 season and reached the FA Cup Final. Benayoun proved very tricky for Liverpool's defence and this performance certainly played its part in Rafa signing him a year later.
Benayoun's first season at Anfield can certainly be described as successful as he featured in 47 of Liverpool's 59 competitive matches even though he was substituted 12 times and came on as a substitute 21 times. Eleven goals was a more than satisfactory figure for a man playing in his position and included hat-tricks against Besiktas in the Champions League and Havant & Waterlooville in the F.A. cup. His first-team debut came in the Champions League at Toulouse with his League debut being against Derby County two and a half weeks later. Although it must be frustrating being 'on the bench' so much, Yossi proved to be an effective substitute and his introduction often changed a game, as it did when he came on at Wigan early in the second period and scored the winning goal twenty minutes later. The two trebles in those cup matches were particularly good examples of how important it is to be 'in the right place at the right time' because no fewer than 3 of those 6 goals came when he reacted quickly to shots by his colleagues that had been saved or blocked.
Benayoun made further progress in his second season and has been a first team starter and one of the side's best performers since April 2009. His skill on the ball is a joy to behold and his vision second to none. He scored 9 times from 42 first-team appearances in the 2008/9 season and the popular Israeli signed a two-year extension to his contract on the 6th of July 2009, this contract binding him to the club until 2013.
One of the club's most popular ... and, on his day, most effective ... players, Benayoun had another steady season in 2009-2010 starting 29 competitive matches but significantly being replaced in 22 of them. He made a further 16 appearances as a substitute and showed that he still has an eye for a goal, 9 strikes equalling his total for the previous season. Benayoun has now scored over a century of League goals for five different clubs. Even if most of them came in weaker leagues than the English, it's still an impressive figure for a man who plays in his position. His hat-trick in the early-season Anfield encounter with Burnley was a unique treble in another way too, making him the only English-based player to have scored hat-tricks in the Premier League, the Champions League and the F.A. cup.
Benayoun still had three years left of the contract-extension he signed in 2009 when he moved to Chelsea in July 2010 to replace Joe Cole. |
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