There are a number of Israeli footballers who go and play outside of the borders of Israel. Very few make it to a club in the top tier of Greek football and even fewer will stay in the reserve team and fight for a place in the first team.
Eyal Golasa is the perfect example of someone who battled his way to success. The gifted midfielder, just 24 years of age began his career at Beitar Tubruk and made his senior team debut for Maccabi Haifa in 2008.
Following a number of championships and playing in the Champions League group stages with Haifa, Golasa signed with PAOK Salonika, a team with a very rich history in Greece.
In his first season with the team, Golasa made 24 appearances for the Greek outfit while starting in 14 games during a difficult period of time where also suffered from injuries. However, despite his performance on the pitch, Golasa was unable to score a goal or pick up an assist leading Croatian Head Coach Igor Tudor to ask the Israeli to begin the season with the reserve side.
Even though Golasa was disappointed, he began training with the reserve team in all seriousness, commitment and investing of himself to prove to his Croatian coach that he belonged with the first team. A little over a month later, Golasa was called up and returned the coach’s faith in him by helping defeat Panthrakikos 2:0 earning Tudor’s confidence.
After two seasons and 50 appearances with Salonika, Eyal Golasa came back to Israel to wear the Yellow & Blue.
