‘I played for Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal – this was the best transfer of my career’

Yossi Benayoun may be best remembered for his three-year stint with Liverpool between 2007 and 2010, but the Israeli midfielder has admitted that signing for a different club was his best decision

Yossi Benayoun has explained that signing with West Ham United was the best decision of his footballing career, despite being best remembered at Liverpool.

The 44-year-old was a prolific and versatile attacking midfielder during his footballing career, playing for a wealth of Premier League clubs in his prime – but Benayoun saw the most game time in his three-year stint at Anfield between 2007 and 2010. Under the legendary Rafael Benitez, the Israel international racked up 29 goals and 19 assists across 134 games, etching his name into the Premier League’s history books.

However, Benayoun has recently admitted that first signing for West Ham – who he left to join Liverpool – was the best decision that he ever made in terms of football, two years prior to his arrival in the north west. The retired footballer recently explained: “First I will say, I think it was the best decision of my career.

“I’m not saying because you know – I’m not trying to,” nudging to the fact he was doing an interview with a West Ham-centred outlet. He added: “Really, the best decision because when I played in Spain, you know, with my body – you know I’m not that strong. I don’t have the muscles, it’s mainly bones.

“Everyone said in Spain that this is my type of football, and I need to stay in Spain. I got a lot of criticism in Israel when I left Spain, and they said I would never be successful in England. And I think the fact that I signed for West Ham – not only in the Premier League, especially West Ham – was the best decision,” he told West Ham Network.

Benayoun also noted that Alan Pardew and his fellow Hammers team-mates helped him develop as a footballer at the time, explaining: “Because with Alan Pardew at the time and the players that were at the club, it was perfect for me to improve my football.”

Benayoun bounced between the youth systems of Hapoel Dimona, Ajax and Hapoel Be’er Sheva before signing his first professional contract for the latter in 1997, scoring 17 goals and bagging one assist in his debut season with the Israeli side before he was snapped up by Maccabi Haifa.

A successful four-year stint with the club saw him sign for Racing Santander in 2002, before West Ham came calling in 2005. Benayoun left east London with just eight goals and assists to his name, but managed to help the Hammers to a runners-up finish in the 2005/06 FA Cup before he signed for Liverpool in 2007.

Three years with the Reds under Benitez piqued the interest of Chelsea in 2010, where Benayoun went on to win a Europa League in 2012/13 despite only playing 24 games for the Blues in three years – instead enjoying loan spells at another London club in Arsenal and then back at West Ham. Queens Park Rangers between 2013 and 2014 would be Benayoun’s last stint in the world of English football and London, as he then made the move back to Maccabi Haifa.

Benayoun went on to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Petah Tikva either side of two stints with Beitar Jerusalem, before hanging up his boots for good in April 2019. He also enjoyed a wealth of international football with Israel, scoring 24 goals in his 103 appearances for the nation – not bad going at all from the 00/01 Israeli footballer of the Year.

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