Under the spell of Ben Sahar

Wednesday 21 January 2009

The fans of De Graafschap have still not recovered from their amazement about the debut of Israeli International Ben Sahar.

When the beautiful goal the Chelsea mercenary scored against Willem II is a forerunner of what is to come than the Superboeren have gold on their hands.

But how can a small club like De Graafschap go fishing in the pond of Roman Abramovich and why were FC Utrecht, NEC and other Eredivisie clubs unable to land Sahar?

Because long before De Graafschap's Director of Football Leen Looyen and Henk van Stee could sit around the table with Sahar, the player was eyed by Looyens former club NEC and by FC Utrecht.

Mario Been met three times with the Israeli forward, who had a fantastic start at Chelsea but then played for a number of Championship clubs on loan.

Sahar and his agent couldn't agree terms with Chelsea and so the move was off.

This season the strict loan conditions of Chelsea were an obstacle for FC Utrecht.

Chairman Jan Willem van Dop revealed this week how Chelsea had demanded that Sahar play every week.

"If we wouldn't start him we would have to pay a 15,000 euro fine per game," Van Dop said.

Besides that Utrecht were bothered by the fact that there was no option to buy Sahar if he would be successful.

"All in all Sahar would cost us 400,000 for six months. Of course we want to invest in a player with a future potential. But not if he can never become ours."

When Leen Looyen heard the Utrecht deal was off he jumped on the train immediately.

But Henk van Stee admits that Chelsea's Frank Arnesen wasn't too keen at first.

"De Graafschap was to far down in the table," Van Stee says.

"But we did give him a chance to play in the Eredivisie, we didn't demand an option to buy and the chance he would play every week was fairly big."

So Arnesen decided to let Sahar travel to Doetinchem and get to know the place.

People at the club were surprised to see that he walked in with his mother Batya behind him.

He is probably the only European player who is represented by his mother.

Sahar was brought to Chelsea by Pini Zahavi, one of the bigger player brokers in the world.

But about a year ago the player and his mother had enough of the deal with their countryman.

They abruptly severed all ties, were consulted by a small English firm and from that moment mother Batya took care of business.

"Pini is a fine agent, but sadly it is a one-man-show. Mistakes have been made in the counseling of my son, because he didn't bother with the day-to-day business."

Pini Zahavi has his own view on matters.

"I would love to stay on as Sahar's agent, but not of his mother. He can be a top player but not with that mother," he told the Jewish Chronicle last year.

Frank Arnesen still thinks Sahar can be a European top player.

"He was impressive in our youth team, broke through to the second team and the first team. Now it's important he plays games at the highest level. I have seen his first goal for De Graafschap. That was great. That is Ben Sahar," Chelsea's head of youth scouting says.

Henk van Stee can't wait, especially after Sahar's first game.

"Holland is a country where we develop young players. When I told Sahar at his first visit that I had also coached Salomon Kalou and Robin van Persie he called Salomon immediately. He feels at home here and he is a warm hearted person. We are lucky at De Graafschap to have him.