Ben Sahar Biography and Wallpapers

Ben Sahar Biography

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. 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."

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.

Background

Club Football

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.

Chelsea F.C.

Ben Sahar signed for Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League in May 2006 from Hapoel Tel Aviv for £320,000, 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.

Sahar joined Championship side Queens Park Rangers, on loan, for the beginning of the 2007/08 season, on 26 July 2007, for an initial 3 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. After Ben Sahar returned from an injury plagued spell at QPR, Sheffield Wednesday completed the signing of Sahar on an initial one month loan on 21 February 2008.

He signed for the Owls on a one-month deal from Chelsea but has extended his stay until 19 April. "I'm delighted Ben has agreed to stay for a second month. He's not figured much as yet because of injury and then illness," said Owls boss Brian Laws. "But he's hungry to play, he wants to prove himself here and hopefully he will do that." Sahar scored his first goal for Sheffield Wednesday against Crystal Palace on 22 March 2008.

International Football

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 17 ½, 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. 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.

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