Israel On Blog

Israeli young football player Gai Assulin is going places, no doubt. His coach in the second team of Barcelona talks about it, the first team’s president counts on it, and his family, that has already rejected some very tempting offers from other teams, simply knows it. The dream seems closer than ever - an Israeli football star in the first team of Barcelona, one of the leading football clubs in the world.

Assulin is currently living with his father, Eli, in the center of the Catalonian city. Seeing his son playing in the "Camp Nou", maybe the most famous football stadium in the world, was his dream ever since his son’s coaches told him, when the talent was only 10 years old, they have never seen such a potential. In 2003, when Gai was only 12, his father contacted the person in charge of recruiting new talents to Barcelona, and offered his son to take for the annual young talents’ tournament in neighboring Andora. The Spaniard, who has seen a talent or two in his lifetime, watched the Israeli child dribble and kick the ball, and had only one request from his men - bring this child to Barcelona, as fast as you can.

Last year, Gai received offers from leading clubs in the English Premiership, including Chelsea and Arsenal. It seems like the Catalonians had no real reason to worry. Although they have lost some young talents in the last couple of years, Gai and his father had no intention to leave Barcelona for money. It seems they have made the right choice: the young Israeli star graduated from Barcelona’s youngsters’ team and joined the second graduate team in the third league of Spain. Gai, the youngest player in the league, is already considered to be one of the best players in his team. In fact, he even played for the first time with the first team in September in the Catalonian cup. Surely he can’t forget these 45 minutes, playing next to some of the biggest football stars in the world.

Soon Gai will have to make a big decision regarding his future. Gai was recently called up by the Israel national football team for their friendly match against Chile. He debuted for Israel by replacing Yossi Benayoun in the 78th minute of the friendly. By playing in this match, he broke Ben Sahar’s record for youngest national team debut by 195 days.

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