Ben Sahar: The Chelsea wonderkid whose country proposed new laws to help his career

With its array of obscure clubs and players, the UEFA Europa Conference League has been a gift for unashamed football nerds.

Yet among the likes of Alashkert, Jabonlec and Lincoln Red Imps, there are a few names which stand out as oddly familiar to the more casual Premier League viewer – including Ben Sahar.

Sahar is now leading the line for Maccabi Haifa as they battle Feyenoord for top spot in Group E of UEFA's newest competition – but 15 years ago, it looked as if he was set for a much bigger European stage.

He was a teenage wonderkid at Chelsea, wowing the academy coaches at Cobham with his prodigious talent, which saw him make his senior debut at 17 – and even saw his home country of Israel consider new laws named after him to help him in his career.

Needless to say, things did not quite work out as hoped, with Sahar instead getting sucked into the infamous Chelsea loan whirlpool, which led him down a path of 13 clubs in 15 years.

It is only since returning to Israel permanently in 2015 that Sahar has been able to settle and find success.

He won the Israeli Premier League three seasons in a row with Hapoel Beer Sheva and helped dump Inter out of the Europa League too – before moving to champions Haifa last summer.

Given he's still an active Israel international at 32, there remains buzz around Sahar – but not nearly as much as there was when he signed for Chelsea in June 2006, which resulted in boyhood club Hapoel Tel Aviv being awarded £320,000 ($430,000) in compensation.

That buzz became a din in Israel in 2007 when, while still a teenager, he scored the goal which took his country to the Under-21 Euros, knocking France out of the play-offs in the process.

He was also scoring for Chelsea's youth teams and manager Jose Mourinho gave him his senior debut with a 14-minute substitute appearance against Macclesfield Town in an FA Cup third round clash on January 6, 2007.

The following week, he made his Premier League bow, with a nine-minute cameo in a 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic.

PROSHOTS

In February 2007, he made his senior international debut, becoming the youngest ever Israeli to represent his country – a record since surpassed by fellow Forgotten Men alumnus Gai Assulin.

The very next month, though, he set a record which remains to this day, as the youngest ever goal scorer for Israel, with a brace in a 4-0 win over Estonia.

Such was his prodigious talent, Israel planned to change their strict laws stating all men in their late teens must serve three years of national service in their homeland. Called the 'Sahar Bill', it would have allowed him to complete the service in Great Britain instead while he carried on his football career.

The bill did not pass but Sahar was allowed to complete his service in stages whenever he returned to Israel during breaks in the season.

"It is strange and exciting to wear this uniform all of a sudden. Now I feel like any Israeli and proud of it," he told Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot. "I never said I did not want to serve and I hope the army can come to me as much as possible."

However, while Sahar did not leave Chelsea to do his military service, he did repeatedly leave on loan with varying success. A spell at QPR was disrupted by appendicitis, while a stint with Sheffield Wednesday was more fruitful, as three goals in 12 games helped the Owls avoid Championship relegation.

In 2008-09, the Sahar train ground firmly to a halt. He joined Premier League side Portsmouth on loan, but that same summer they also signed Peter Crouch to partner fellow England international Jermain Defoe up front, and the youngster never got a look in, failing to make a single league appearance for Pompey.

Sahar was not impressed with the way Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp treated him. "If I had played a few games and they said I wasn't good enough, then fine," he said. "But the fact is that I haven't been given that chance to shine."

With Mourinho and his successor, Avram Grant, gone from Stamford Bridge, Sahar was no longer the golden boy at Stamford Bridge. As just another fringe loanee, he was sold in summer 2009 to Espanyol for £1 million ($1.3m).

Goal

Sahar showed impressive maturity for a young player who had seen his dreams of superstardom fade in front of his eyes, after moving to La Liga.

"I am young and I want to show that I deserve to play in the Spanish league, which, for me, is the best," Sahar told his introductory Espanyol press conference.

"Gai Assulin recommended the city to me and before I came I spoke to some other Israeli players. In particular, I talked to Yossi Benayoun, who told me that Espanyol are a great club. Everyone said good things and that is why I am here.

Sahar struggled at Espanyol, however, netting just one goal in 22 Liga games in 2009-10. Just five of those appearances were starts, with manager Mauricio Pochettino limiting the 20-year-old to minutes off the bench.

“This is my first year here and I’m sure my time will come," he told Marca in January 2010. "When I will play more, I will be better. In football you must have patience, because if you want things to go faster it can go wrong, I must take it step by step."

His time did not come at Espanyol, as Pochettino sent Sahar on loan instead.

This began a tour of Europe, taking in France with Auxerre, Germany at Hertha Berlin and Willem II in Netherlands – before he finally landed at Be'er Sheva and was actually able to show the Israeli fans what he was all about.

His start to the 2021-22 campaign was limited by a hamstring injury, but Sahar did play 20 minutes as Haifa got their first Conference League group stage win against Slavia Prague.

It's not the stage expected when he was 17, but it certainly is appreciated by us football nerds.

You can check in on more of Goal's Forgotten Men here.