Israeli football icon Yossi Benayoun nicknamed the Diamond played for a lot of teams in the Premier League before he called time on his career. Yossi Benayoun played for Liverpool, Arsenal and West Ham United in the English top flight. In addition to the London duo of West Ham United and Arsenal, Yossi Benayoun also played for Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers in West London. In total, Yossi Benayoun featured for four teams in London. The Beitar Jerusalem sporting director spent his youth team career with three teams namely HapoelDimona in his native Israel, Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam and Hapoel Beer’ Sheva in the Israeli top flight. His professional career started at Hapoel Beer’ Shevabefore he went on to play for Maccabi Haifa in Israel and Racing Santander in the Spanish league. Yossi Benayoun moved from Spain to the Premier League in 2005. West Ham United paid £2.5m to secure his transfer from Racing Santander and his signing was hailed by then Hammers boss Alan Pardew who was delighted that the club has signed a player that can open up teams that sit deep. His Premier League debut came on the opening day of the 2005/06 season as he helped West Ham United to a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers. He didn’t wait for too long to net his first goal in the competition after the Israeli international netted the final goal in the 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa. Yossi Benayoun netted five goals in 34 games in the Premier League in his first season and also helped the club reach the FA Cup final before they were beaten on penalties by Liverpool. His last game for the Hammers came in the summer of 2007 during the 1-0 away win over Manchester United. Carlos Tevez scored the only goal of the game as the Hammers survived relegation as a result of that victory. Benayoun signed for Liverpool in a £5m deal. He would return to West Ham United from Chelsea on loan in 2012 but didn’t score in six league games for the club. In total, he scored eight goals in 69 league games.
For Liverpool, Yossi Benayoun netted 18 goals in 92 Premier League games between 2007 and 2010 before signing for Chelsea. He was at Chelsea until 2013 though the Blues sent him on loan to Arsenal and the Hammers during that time. Yossi Benayoun registered just once in 14 league outings at Stamford Bridge. At Arsenal, the player scored four goals in 19 matches. He would go on to sign for Queens Park Rangers from 2013 to 2014 netting three times in 16 league games.
