Ben Dajani

Defensive Midfielder - Beitar Jerusalem
4 Apr 2032
Sunday
Process

Marked for Ben Dajani

264 Edition

The Beitar Jerusalem Gazette

18 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Beitar Jerusalem did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Boardroom

William Apenteng has agreed to leave Beitar Jerusalem for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Market

William Apenteng has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Beitar Jerusalem they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Ben Dajani is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A row about effort at Beitar Jerusalem

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roei Alkukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A falling-out at Beitar Jerusalem

Nana Antwi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Beitar Jerusalem rebuffed over Gil Peretz

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hapoel Tel Aviv have kept their man, and Beitar Jerusalem go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A late step up for Gabriel Leiva

At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.

Market

Hapoel Raanana are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Beitar Jerusalem will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

In brief

Back issues
260 Edition

The Beitar Jerusalem Gazette

21 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Beitar Jerusalem did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at Beitar Jerusalem

Dor Micha and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Real improvement from Ben Dajani at Beitar Jerusalem

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ben Dajani is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words at Beitar Jerusalem training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boris Enow is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Transfer targets

Carabobo tell Beitar Jerusalem: Agustín Martínez is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Late improvement for Gabriel Leiva

At 30 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Transfer targets

Beitar Jerusalem ask about Alfredo Vargas

A loan enquiry to Deportivo Cali: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

No hiding place for Liel Deri

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Liel Deri, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Roei Alkukin knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Beitar Jerusalem, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

254 Edition

The Beitar Jerusalem Gazette

9 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Yarden Cohen out for 21 days

21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Beitar Jerusalem lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Ziv Ben-Shimol agrees terms with Bnei Yehuda

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Beitar Jerusalem people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Hapoel Kiryat Shmona come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Beitar Jerusalem did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Gabriel Leiva puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Beitar Jerusalem, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Roei Alkukin signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roei Alkukin and Beitar Jerusalem agree another 5 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Beitar Jerusalem

Dor Micha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Ben Dajani gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ben Dajani has just signed for Beitar Jerusalem, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Lautaro Catanzano

Beitar Jerusalem asked and Zamora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Amit Weissman is in the works

Beitar Jerusalem have made the call to Maccabi Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief