Beram Kayal
Beram Kayal (or Biram Keyal, , ; born 2 May 1988) is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Bnei Sakhnin of the Israeli Premier League. Internationally he plays for Israel, where he has been a full international since 2008, with 47 senior caps to date. Kayal joined Maccabi Haifa in 2002 and made his professional debut in 2006 at the age of 18. He made 125 appearances and scored eight goals before moving to Celtic in 2010. He has received plaudits from many Scottish football pundits and was named the SPL player of the month for January 2011. In January 2015, he joined Brighton & Hove Albion where he spent five-and-a-half years – including a loan spell at Charlton Athletic – helping The Seagulls to Premier League promotion for the first time in the club's history. Kayal made a return to Israel in November 2020 signing for Bnei Sakhnin of the Israeli top flight. Early and personal life Kayal was born in Jadeidi-Makr, Israel, to a Muslim-Arab family, and is an Arab-Israeli citizen. Club career Maccabi Haifa Kayal started his career as a striker in the various Youth teams of Maccabi Haifa and scored many goals before taking on the role of a midfielder. Despite only being 16 years old at the time, he moved up to the Maccabi Haifa under-19 team for the 2004–05 campaign and excelled as part of the team that won a League and Cup double. Kayal was named the League's Outstanding Player. He made his first-team debut for Maccabi Haifa at the end of the 2005–06 season in a 2–1 win over Maccabi Petah Tikva which sealed Maccabi's third League title in a row at the age of 17 making two appearances that season. In the 2006–07 season, he made six appearances in all competitions, but took on the role of captain of the under-19 team that won another League and Cup double. He scored a hat-trick in a league win against Beitar Jerusalem. In the 2007–08 season Kayal became a first team regular featuring 36 times in the first-team. After that he became an integral part of the team and enjoyed success in subsequent seasons winning the Premier League and Toto Cup. During the 2007 Torneo di Viareggio youth tournament in Italy, Kayal was praised by the Italian press for a Man of the match performance against their counterparts from Fiorentina. Both Corriere della Sera and Gazzetta dello Sport seemed to be astonished to learn that he was an Arab on an Israeli team and took a great amount of time to learn more about him. In the 2009–10 season, Maccabi Haifa lost the Premier League championship on the last matchday, when Hapoel Tel Aviv scored in the 92nd minute to beat Beitar Jerusalem. Celtic On 29 July 2010, Kayal signed a four-year deal with Scottish Premier League side Celtic and was given the number 33 shirt. The transfer fee paid to Maccabi Haifa was reported as £1.2 million.