Ben Sahar is a Polish-Israeli footballer, who was born on August 10, 1989 in Holon, Israel. Since his mother Batya is of Polish-Jewish origin, he was granted Polish citizenship, which helped him play matches in the United Kingdom. Ben Sahar made his debut for the Israel Under-21 national team on October 7, 2006 in a play-off against France, in which he scored in the away leg, paving way for Israel’s unexpected qualification to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) U-21 Championship, 2007.
On February 7, 2007 when Ben Sahar was seventeen-and-half years old, he appeared in a friendly match against Ukraine becoming the youngest player to play in the Israel national football team and Chelsea’s youngest player to win an international cap. On March 24, 2007 he earned his second cap by coming in as a substitute in a match against England. Ben Sahar appeared for the third time on March 28, 2007 and scored twice against Estonia, becoming the youngest player to score for the national team and the youngest Chelsea player to score an international goal. He also came in as a substitute in a Euro 2008 qualifier in March and has played a total of 8 matches as of 2008.
Ben Sahar started his football career by initially playing in Sportop Football Academy in Modi’in before joining Hapoel Tel Aviv as a youth player. His impressive performances in an Under-16 match against Ireland in 2004 caught the attention of Chelsea. In May 2006, he signed for Chelsea from Hapoel Tel Aviv, before which, he had a two-month trial at Stamford Bridge. Ben Sahar was credited as Israel's brightest talents by Chelsea and when he was 16 his potentials equaled a second year apprentice. He played his first match for Chelsea on January 6, 2007 in the club’s 6-1 win over Macclesfield Town at the Football Association (FA) Cup Third Round, following which he made his Premiership debut on January 13, 2007 against Wigan Athletic.
On July 26, 2007 Ben Sahar was loaned to the Queens Park Rangers for a three-month period, following which he contributed a brace to the club’s 2-1 win against Fulham. This performance led to the extension of his contract until January 2, 2008. Soon on February 21, 2008 he was loaned to Sheffield Wednesday for a one-month deal that extended to May 4, 2008 when he notched his first goal for the club against Crystal Palace on March 22, 2008.
On July 1, 2008 Ben Sahar became a Portsmouth player on a six-month deal and netted his first goal for the club in a 5-0 win against Kano Pillars in Portsmouth’s pre season tour of Nigeria. He also went on to score against the Havant and Waterlooville F.C and the Gosport Borough F.C.
Ben Sahar was credited by Eyal Hayit, youth team coach and former mentor at Hapoel, for his goal scoring and technical ability. He also added that Ben Sahar is fast and has the ability to score 30-40 goals a season.
Being an Israeli citizen, Ben Sahar has to complete a three-year spell of national service with Israel but there are chances that Israel will allow him to complete a civil service term in Britain itself.
