Eyal Golasa ( ; born 7 October 1991) is an Israeli professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Maccabi Petah Tikva.

Early life

Golasa was born in

Bat Hefer Bat Hefer () is a community settlement in the Sharon plain in Israel. Located east of Netanya and adjacent to two kibbutzim; Bahan and Yad Hana, it covers 1,000 dunams and falls under the jurisdiction of the Hefer Valley Regional Council. The ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, to a family of

Mizrahi Jewish Mizrahi Jews (), also known as ''Mizrahim'' () in plural and ''Mizrahi'' () in singular, and alternatively referred to as Oriental Jews or ''Edot HaMizrach'' (, ), are terms used in Israeli discourse to refer to a grouping of Jews, Jewish c ...

( Yemeni-Jewish) descent. His father is former Israeli footballer Avner Golasa.

Club career

Maccabi Haifa

Golasa came from the highly successful youth system of Beitar Nes Tubruk. In the summer of 2008, he joined

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

. He made his debut in the

2008–09 Israeli Premier League The 2008–09 Israeli Premier League season began on 30 August 2008, and ended on 1 June 2009. Beitar Jerusalem were the defending champions, having won their 6th league title the previous year. Two teams from Liga Leumit were promoted at the en ...

. The midfielder remained a substitute at the beginning of this season until coming off the bench in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

match against Kazakh champion FK Aktobe on 4 August. Golasa came off the bench, almost singlehandedly turning around a 0–3 deficit as Maccabi claimed a vital 4–3 victory. After leading Maccabi to the playoff stage of the

, Golasa scored a goal against Red Bull Salzburg, as the Israelis won 3–0. This result enabled the Israelis to return to the group stages of Europe's elite competition. At that time he was being monitored by major European clubs. Websites specializing on football scouting would present him as the new star of the Israeli football. On 1 February 2010, Golasa had reportedly signed a contract with Italian club

S.S. Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian footba ...

. Five days later, the club announced the signing on a 4.5-year deal. However, Golasa decided to return to Israel to rejoin Maccabi Haifa and apologised for joining Lazio without informing Maccabi Haifa. Maccabi Haifa confirmed the player was staying and stated the Lazio contract was not valid because they had not been informed of negotiations between Golasa and Lazio. He was suspended for six months by Maccabi Haifa after agreeing to sign a new contract. He made a verbal agreement but later backed out, causing club boss Ya'akov Shahar to suspend him until the end of the season, after which he was sold to Greek football club

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

PAOK

On 24 June 2014, Golasa was transferred to the Greek football team

for an undisclosed fee till summer 2017. He could not help the club during the Super League 2014–15 play-offs as he suffered a second degree sprain in the left groin and medical reports stated he would be back in action after four to six weeks.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

In July 2016, Golasa returned to his native Israel, joining

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv () is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such as football, basketball, j ...

Career statistics

Club

http://www.one.co.il/Player/10-11/1,1,4,37393/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9C_%D7%92%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A1%D7%94

Honours

;Maccabi Haifa *

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League (, Ligat HaAl, ) is a professional association football league in Israel and the highest level of the Israeli football league system. The league is contested by 14 clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and rele ...

(2): 2008–09,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

;Maccabi Tel Aviv *

(3): 2018–19, 2019–20, 2023–24 *

Toto Cup The Israel Toto Cup (, ''Gvia Ha'Toto'') is an association football tournament that features clubs in the two highest divisions in Israel: the Israeli Premier League Ligat ha'Al, Ligat Ha'Al; and the Israeli 2nd division Liga Leumit. Both of the ...

(4): 2017–18, 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2023–24 *

Israel Super Cup The Israel Super Cup, also known as the Champion of Champions (, Aluf HaAlufim), is an Israeli association football club competition played as a single match between the winner of the latest Israeli top league champions and the winner of the late ...

(2):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Golasa, Eyal 1991 births Living people Israeli Mizrahi Jews Israeli men's footballers Footballers from Central District (Israel) Beitar Nes Tubruk F.C. players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players PAOK FC players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Maccabi Petah Tikva F.C. players Israeli Premier League players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Greece Israeli people of Yemeni-Jewish descent Israeli twins Men's association football midfielders Israel men's international footballers 21st-century Israeli sportsmen