Striker Tal Ben Haim, who spent last season at municipal rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv, signed a four-year contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv yesterday afternoon and will join the team on Thursday at their training camp in Austria
Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club have agreed terms with Maccabi Petah Tikva for the transfer of Tal Ben Haim, who yesterday afternoon signed a four-year contract at Kiryat Shalom. Last season the 24 year-old striker made 30 league appearances for city rivals Hapoel Tel Aviv scoring seven goals, the last of which came against Maccabi Tel Aviv in a derby that finished 4-2 in Maccabi's favour. Maccabi Tel Aviv's sports director Jordi Cruyff had this to say to the official website: "As soon as the opportunity presented itself to acquire a player with the qualities of Tal Ben Haim the decision was made to complete the deal and bring him to the club. We're very pleased about signing Tal and feel certain he'll strengthen the squad and assist us in achieving our goals. We wish him every success and we'll be doing everything we can to ensure his speedy assimilation at the club".
Tal Ben Haim came up through the ranks of the youth system at Maccabi Petah Tikva and made his first appearance for the senior team in May 2008 against Bnei Yehuda. In the same season he scored his maiden goal against Hapoel Tel Aviv. After failing to score the following season, Ben Haim made his breakthrough in the 2009/10 season with nine league goals and followed that up with ten more in 2010/11. In all he scored 29 goals for Maccabi Petah Tikva before moving on to Hapoel Tel Aviv last summer.
