THE second article in our new section taking a look at all things
West Ham United from the national and local newspapers is an
exclusive interview from The Independent with Yossi Benayoun
looking at the Israeli star's incredible route to Upton Park.
YOSSI BENAYOUN - taken from The Independent
by Jason Burt
This is a Boy's Own story. A story of courage, belief and a
fierce will to succeed. But also to do the right thing. It's
the story of Yossi Benayoun.
Aged nine and he was spotted as a footballing talent. Aged 11 and
the talent was labelled a genius. By 13 his face appeared on the
front of magazines in Israel.
With his father, Benayoun, always a slight, almost fragile figure,
hitch-hiked to the training grounds of Hapoel Be'er Sheva, the
only senior team in the Negev desert. The Negev is an extraordinary
place. Desperate. 'It's a normal life like anybody. My
family still live there, in the desert,' Benayoun protests
before adding 'It's a different life from England but
it's my home. It's one of the smallest and poorest cities
in Israel.'
His hometown is Dimona, a place where families such as his, which
emigrated from Morocco, were sent in the 1970s and '80s.
It's also overshadowed by Israel's nuclear reactor, where
many inhabitants worked, although Benayoun's father was, and
still is, employed by the council.
'I was a football player from ever since I remember,'
Benayoun, sitting in West Ham United's training ground, says.
'My dream was to play in the Israeli Premier Division.'
Except bigger clubs came calling. Suddenly one of the biggest of
all, Ajax, that Dutch footballing factory, wanted him. Benayoun was
just 15 and he took all his family his parents, his sisters, his
brother with him.
'It ripped my family,' Benayoun says. 'It was very
hard, difficult. My girlfriend, Mirat (now his wife) was also just
15. It was just too hard for everyone.' His little brother, in
particular, pined for Israel. 'It was just not the right
time,' Benayoun states.
Ajax clearly thought it was. Although things were not right, he
thrived on the field. Top-scorer and 'best player' of the
youth team he was, having just turned 16, called in and offered a
four-year contract as a first-team player. 'But the day after I
had to say 'sorry, I want to go back',' Benayoun
explains. After just eight months he returned to live in the Negev.
'It was hard, especially for a family who had nothing,' he
says. 'The money was important but there are lots of things
which are more important. You have to be happy, if you are not then
money doesn't matter.'
His family had also been given cash by well-wishers back in Israel,
to help them. 'A lot of people,' Benayoun says. 'But
when I went back I returned it.'
There was, nevertheless, a problem. 'There was a lot of
criticism,' Benayoun says. 'The press in Israel, the
journalists, are very hard. When I went back they wrote horrible
things, saying I would never be a player, I would never be able to
make it in Europe and didn't have the character. They just
didn't understand.'
When he had left for Ajax the stories had been very different.
'Everyone in Israel loved and supported me,' Benayoun says.
'They liked the stories that I had nothing, my family had
nothing, and I came out and had great success.'
Benayoun has always been known as 'The Kid' in Israel. He
still is. 'All the time, yes,' he laughs. 'I'm 25
and they call me 'The Kid' since I started. I started very
young. I was in the Premier League in Israel at 17 and have been
eight years in the national team. All the time it's 'The
Kid, the Kid'. But they don't understand that now, I'm
a father.' He adds: 'But I hope they still call me 'The
Kid' when I'm retiring.'
After Ajax, the Kid returned to train with Be'er Sheva. 'I
was there for one year,' he says. 'No one expected me to
play, but I was put into the team and was the top-scorer and player
of the year.' It came down to the last day of the season.
Despite Benayoun's brilliance and 15 goals, the team had to win
their last game, and hope another result went for them, to avoid
relegation.
In the last minute they were drawing. Then they won a penalty.
'I had to take it,' Benayoun says. 'The other players
were aged 29 to 32. It was a very experienced team but none of the
other 10 wanted to take it. No one. And I tell you something "
I missed. The goalkeeper saved it.' But the rebound fell back
to him and, coolly, The Kid chipped into the net. Chaos. 'I ran
and ran,' Benayoun says. But it wasn't enough.
'Yes,' he says. 'Unfortunately, in the other match, the
other team scored in the last minute too and we went down.'
There's a photograph of Benayoun taken after the game. It shows
the tears, the distraught youthful face. It struck to the heart of
Israel. They took The Kid back and loved him again.
He went to Maccabi Haifa. 'A big team,' Benayoun says.
'But one that had not won the league for seven years.' With
him they were champions twice in four seasons and, twice, he was
named Israel's footballer of the year again.
'It was a lot of pressure but I call it positive pressure,'
Benayoun, who did his three years national service during that time
as well, says. 'It was the pressure that every player wants.
Since I started I wanted to be the best, to be the best in the
national team, to be one of the leaders.'
His club did well in Europe. They beat Paris St Germain twice, and
performed beyond expectation. 'People started to look at me
again,' Benayoun says. 'I just had to make the right
decision and this time the right decision was to leave. I always
felt sure that I would get another chance in Europe and it came
along.'
This time it was to Spain, to the north and Racing Santander.
'Everyone expected that we would go down to the Second
Division,' Benayoun says. 'But we stayed up and I had a lot
of good games.' Few better than the eye-catching hat-trick he
collected in Racing's 4-1 victory away to Deportivo La
Coruña last April. It helped arrest the slide towards
relegation but, after three years, and despite offers 'from two
or three clubs in Spain' Benayoun felt it was time to move on.
'I wanted to try something else,' he says. 'And English
football.'
West Ham. Again people in Israel questioned his decision.
'Everyone told me I was making a big mistake and that Bolton
(who had also bid) were a bigger team,' Benayoun says.
'They think that because Bolton have done well in the last few
years and are playing in Europe.' They also have another
Israeli, Tal Ben Haim.
'But when I make a decision I'm happy to stay with it until
the end,' Benayoun says. 'If West Ham lose all their games
and end up in the second division and Bolton go on and win the
championship then I know that I still made the right decision.
I'm determined. You can ask Mirat that although after 10 years
together we make decisions together, of course!'
He has clearly thought about why West Ham, even though
newly-promoted, were the right club. 'There's a good
combination of young players plus two or three with a lot of
experience,' Benayoun says. 'We try and play football and
that's what the manager wants.
'I need that. I'm a player who needs the ball, needs to
have a lot of contact with it, to feel it. Like you see I'm not
so big and strong. When I decided to come to West Ham it was one of
several choices but I knew about the history, that they try and
play, and that it's important to them.'
It helped West Ham's chances of securing Benayoun that he took
testimony from another Israeli, Eyal Berkovic. 'I spoke with
Eyal,' he says. 'He played here for two years and I have a
good relationship with him. He's one of my best friends and
taught me everything I need to know. He told me that I had made the
right decision, that I would enjoy it and the football, that it was
not like other teams, like Bolton. Bolton are strong but they play
long-ball.'
There are similarities in style between the two Israelis. 'That
is perfect for me as he is one of the best players,' Benayoun
says. 'The only difference is that I play closer to the goal,
he's more deep lying. Like me he's not the biggest
physically and when I came to England everyone thought my size
would be a problem. But I believe in myself and I think I can make
the weight up.'
There have been other comparisons too. Many West Ham fans talk
wistfully of Benayoun and Alan Devonshire " 'they have
told me he was a great player,' the Israeli says " while
another of such skill is Joe Cole. 'A great player,'
Benayoun says. 'But I've got a long way to prove myself and
get close to their level.'
The West Ham manager Alan Pardew has even mentioned, in terms of
technical attributes, a likeness to Zinedine Zidane. Benayoun
laughs at that one. 'It's good for me personally and shows
what he expects,' he says, 'but Zidane's the best in
the world and I'm not even close. There is no comparison.'
What is certain is the effect Benayoun has had on West Ham from the
left- side of midfield although Pardew is also keen to use him more
centrally 'as the brains of the attack', the eventual heir
to 39-year-old Teddy Sheringham. Benayoun himself craves
responsibility. 'If you bring a player who has played in Spain
for three years and you have spent a lot of money on him
(£2.5m) he can't just come and be one of the 25 players in
the squad,' Benayoun says. 'He has to do more. You expect
more from him. It was important for me that I did things in that
first game that showed them they had made a good decision. If you
prove yourself it gives you power.'
That first game was the home victory against Blackburn Rovers.
'It wasn't a shock, I had expected something
difficult,' Benayoun says. 'But I wasn't in the game
for the first 20 minutes and I just couldn't get the air into
my lungs. Everything was so fast, I couldn't breathe. Every
touch I made was bad, every pass. I lost the first five or six
balls. After that I said to myself 'look, take your breath.
Play simple.' And after that I played better.' So good that
pundits named him man of the match.
'No one expected that after five games we would have 10
points,' he says. 'Personally I'm very happy, I'm
enjoying it from every point of view but know that I have to keep
playing like this.' Indeed Benayoun admits that he expected it
to be tougher. 'Before I came here I thought it would be more
difficult,' he says. 'Everyone knows it's hard to move
to another country, to settle in, there's always a lot to
learn.' It helps that he has found a home for his family and a
nursery for his little girl.
Still the football can be too frantic. 'I like English and
Spanish football but here everything is faster, more
aggressive,' Benayoun says. 'Sometimes it's too fast.
So fast that you lose the ball. But it's more enjoyable and, of
course, the supporters. There is nothing to compare to them. They
live their football. They show their appreciation.'
Another image comes into view. It's the Ramat Gan Stadium in
Tel Aviv last March during Israel's World Cup campaign " a
campaign which could see them reaching Germany next year. They are
playing the Republic of Ireland and Benayoun goes into the dressing
room.
'They gave me this T-shirt and I looked at it and thought
'how lucky, it's got my number. Number 15',' he
says. 'Everyone started to laugh.' The reason why soon
became apparent. Out in the stadium everyone was wearing blue
T-shirts with Benayoun's number 15 on the back. All 50,000 of
them. It was their way of saying thank you to The Kid for the
excitement, the hope, the pride he had given to Israeli
football.
What The Papers Say
26th September 2005