Israeli Ballers in Europe

Coby ponders on how Israeli players across Europe have fared as the season comes to a close.

As the 2025/26 football season nears its end, I thought I’d look back at how some of the Israeli national team players have been faring at their respective clubs across Europe, and take a look at how the season could shape up during the run-in.

We’ll start fairly close to home in Southampton, where Daniel Peretz has been smashing it between the sticks, producing six clean sheets in 15 appearances for the Saints since joining in January. This impressive run of form has them currently sitting in a playoff spot in the Championship, with everything still to play for in the final four games.

Now, if you know me, you’ll know that I’ll do pretty much anything to get to a football match, including walking 4.5 hours, spending a night on the streets of New York, and staying an extra night in Budapest after Bogsem, by myself, after telling Jake, “I’ve found a flight that goes straight to Birmingham.” With that last example, I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was about to see Gavriel (Gabi) Kanchowsky score his second ever goal for Hungarian giants Ferencváros as they won 2–1 away at Puskás Akadémia, in one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world, on a very cold night in November.

Currently, they sit three points behind league leaders ETO Győr, but Gabi and fellow Israeli Mohammad Abu Fani, who was on the bench in the match I saw, have a game in hand heading into the final four matches.

Photo from the game in Budapest

Next, we move over to the Dutch Eredivisie, where there is a strong contingent of Israeli players. The three teams we’ll look at are currently sitting in third, fourth, and fifth, with the difference between Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League football on the line.

In fifth place with Ajax is the talented young prospect Oscar Gloukh, often coming off the bench to make an impact. He has managed five goals and six assists this season, with Ajax currently on 51 points. In fourth place on 53 points is Stav Lemkin’s Twente, and just one point ahead are NEC Nijmegen, featuring Israeli defender Eli Dasa.

Dasa scored in a 4–3 win for NEC back in January and has since helped them win all but one of their last ten league games. The end of the season is set to be exciting, with both Ajax and Twente still needing to face PSV, who have already been crowned champions.

Over in Italy, we could see two Israelis come up against each other in what looks like a relegation six-pointer. Omri Gandelman, who plays for Lecce, is currently fighting to keep them in Serie A and will face fellow countryman Manor Solomon with Fiorentina at the Stadio Ettore Giardiniero. Both have scored two goals for their clubs this season, but Fiorentina hold a five-point advantage with four games remaining.

Before this season, Ludogorets in the Bulgarian top flight had won an incredible 14 consecutive league titles, a record jointly held with Skonto FC in Latvia and Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar. Going into this season, new signing Idan Nachmias from Maccabi Tel Aviv must have felt ready to break that record outright. However, as the saying goes, the 15th title is the hardest, and they may have to settle for second place, with Levski Sofia looking likely to become the first non-Ludogorets champions since 2012.

Finally, in Belgium, Union Saint-Gilloise are within touching distance of retaining the league title they won last year, with Israeli forward Anan Khalaili playing a key role. He has been central to their attacking play, including in a major Champions League win against Atalanta.

I’m not the first in my family to have a football-related article published by FZY, but mine is less opinion-based and far less likely to cause offence at Veida than my mum’s article in The FZY Bulletin circa 1992, titled Scottish Football is Crap.

So, keep an eye on Daniel Peretz, who could yet push for some underdog FA Cup glory, and watch how the Eredivisie battle plays out. Personally, I reckon Eli Dasa and NEC will come out on top among the Israelis in the race for European football.