Ben Sahar

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Ben Sahar
בן סהר
Personal information
Date of birth August 10, 1989 (1989-08-10) (age 18)
Place of birth    Holon, Israel
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position Winger, Striker
Club information
Current club Chelsea
Number 27
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
2006-Present
2007
2008		 Chelsea
→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)
→ Sheffield Wednesday F.C. (loan)		 003 0(0)
009 0(0)
0012 0(3)   
National team2
2005-2006
2006
2006-2008
2007		 Israel U17
Israel U18
Israel U21
Israel		 006 0(5)
001 0(0)
008 0(3)
007 0(2)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 20:16, 22 March 2008 (UTC).
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of 20:42, 29 December 2007 (UTC).
* Appearances (Goals)

Ben Sahar (Hebrew: בן סהר‎; born 10 August 1989 in Holon, Israel) is an Israeli footballer contracted to Chelsea F.C..

Sahar is known as one of Israel's brightest talents, according to Chelsea. At 16, he was already the equivalent of a second year apprentice at Chelsea.[1] He first caught Chelsea's eye in an Under-16 fixture against Ireland in 2004 and has since played for the Israeli Under-21 national team and the Israeli national team. Before transferring to Chelsea, Sahar was on the Hapoel Tel Aviv books, and while he was promoted to the first team by the manager Itzhak Shum, Sahar did not feature in any matches due to his transfer being completed before the start of the 2006/07 season.

Sahar's former mentor at Hapoel, youth team coach Eyal Hayit, hailed his goalscoring potential and technical ability: "He is suitable for Europe because he knows how to achieve the goals he sets himself and he is an exceptionally talented player, He is fast and has fantastic physical ability; he scores 30-40 goals a season and his ball skills are something you don't see here every day."[2]

Before coming to Chelsea, he got Polish citizenship (his mother Batya is of Polish-Jewish origin), which grants him an automatic right to play in the UK, as Poland is an EU member state.[3]

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Sahar began playing football in his hometown of Modi'in, Israel. There he was enrolled in the 'Sportop Football Academy', before joining the youth ranks of Hapoel Tel Aviv.[4]

[edit] Chelsea F.C. career

Ben Sahar signed for Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League in May 2006 from Hapoel Tel Aviv for £320,000,[2] having previously spent a two-month period on trial at Stamford Bridge. He is currently a regular on Chelsea's reserve team.

Sahar was called up to the Chelsea first team to play Macclesfield Town in the FA Cup on January 6, 2007 and made his debut coming on as a substitute for Salomon Kalou in the 76th minute. He made his Premiership debut on January 13, 2007, coming off the bench to replace Arjen Robben in the 82nd minute of the match versus Wigan Athletic F.C.[5]

Sahar joined Championship side Queens Park Rangers, on loan, for the beginning of the 2007/08 season, on 26 July 2007, for an initial three-month period. He followed this up with two goals in a pre-season friendly against Premier League side Fulham, earning Queens Park Rangers a 2-1 win. Following this, his loan-deal was then extended to 2 January 2008.[6] After Sahar returned from an injury-plagued spell at QPR, Sheffield Wednesday completed the signing of Sahar on an initial one-month loan from Chelsea on 21 February 2008.[7]

This was extended until 19 April,[8] and again until the end of the season on 4 May 2008.[9] Sahar scored his first goal for Sheffield Wednesday against Crystal Palace on 22 March 2008.

[edit] National team career and success

On October 7, 2006 Ben Sahar made his debut for the Israel U-21s in a playoff against France - scoring Israel's goal in the away leg which ended 1-1, on the way to Israel's shock qualification to UEFA U-21 Championship 2007 with a 2-1 aggregate win.

On February 7, 2007, at the age of 17½, Sahar became the youngest player to ever play for the Israel National Football Team, in a friendly match against Ukraine. In doing so, he became Chelsea's youngest player to earn an international cap.[10] He earned his second cap against England on March 24, 2007, coming on as a substitute in the 69th minute. Sahar became the youngest player to score for the Israel National Team in his third appearance with the team on March 28, 2007, scoring two goals against Estonia as a substitute in Israel's 4-0 win. This was the youngest international goal scored by a Chelsea player.[10]

[edit] International goals

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. March 28, 2007 Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel Flag of Estonia Estonia 3-0 4-0 EURO 2008 qualifier
2. March 28, 2007 Ramat Gan Stadium, Israel Flag of Estonia Estonia 4-0 4-0 EURO 2008 qualifier

[edit] Career statistics

All-Time Club Performance
Club Season Domestic League Domestic Cups[11] Continental games[12] Total
App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals
Chelsea F.C. 06-07 3 0 2 0 0 0 5 0
Total 3 0 2 0 0 0 5 0
Career Totals 3 0 2 0 0 0 5 0
Last updated June 25, 2007

[edit] Military

As an Israeli citizen, Ben Sahar is due to return back to Israel for a three-year spell of national service. However, Israeli law makers are working on a legislation (nicknamed "The Ben Sahar Law") that will allow Sahar to complete a civil service term in Britain instead.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ New Season's Training Started on Monday (HTML). Chelsea FC (2005-07-10). Retrieved on 2006-07-13.
  2. ^ a b Chelsea capture Israeli starlet (HTML). Sky Sports (2005-05-31). Retrieved on 2006-06-07.
  3. ^ Chelsea sign Tel Aviv teen (HTML). The Jewish Chronicle (2005-06-01). Retrieved on 2006-06-07.
  4. ^ Ein-Dor, Izzy. "שוקו, לחמניה ובן סהר", Yedioth Ahronoth, 2007-07-04. Retrieved on 2007-07-04. (Hebrew) 
  5. ^ Tactical Formation. Football-Lineups.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
  6. ^ QPR to keep Sahar until January. BBC Sport. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  7. ^ [1] Retrieved on 9 June 2008.
  8. ^ [2] Retrieved on 9 June 2008.
  9. ^ [3] Retrieved on 9 June 2008.
  10. ^ a b Sahar gratitude for honour. ChelseaFC.com. Retrieved on 2007-07-05.
  11. ^ Counts for appearances and goals during the Carling Cup and FA Cup
  12. ^ Counts for appearances and goals at the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup.

[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Sahar, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION footballer
DATE OF BIRTH 1989-8-10
PLACE OF BIRTH Holon , Israel
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH