Naor Sabag

Naor Sabag's career has been built almost entirely away from where it started. Signed into Beitar Jerusalem's academy after coming through at Hapoel Be'er Sheva, he never made his way into Beitar's first team, instead spending four years out on loan — first at Hakoah Amidar Ramat Gan, then Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem, then Hapoel Bik'at HaYarden, and finally Sektzia Ness Ziona. It was at Ness Ziona that the loan spell turned into something more: he stayed on permanently in 2018 and helped the club up into the Israeli Premier League the following year.

That promotion opened the door to Hapoel Be'er Sheva, the club where his youth career had begun, and he returned there as a senior player in May 2019. From there his path has taken in Maccabi Petah Tikva and FC Ashdod, before he joined Hapoel Haifa on a free transfer in July 2023.

Sabag has yet to earn a senior cap for Israel. What stands out in his career so far is the pattern behind it: every one of his major moves as a senior player has come as a free transfer, a reflection of a route into the game built on loans and lower-division stints rather than a single breakthrough move.