Failed Wonderkid #8- Gai Assulin

Biodata

Full Name: Gai Yigaal Assulin

Nationality: Israeli

Date of Birth: 9 April 1991

Position: Winger/ Attacking Midfielder

Current Club: Politehnica Iasi

Current Market Price: 50k Euro (Updated on Dec 2019)

Highest Market Price: 600k Euro (May 2013)

Former Clubs:

2007- 2010 Barcelona B

2009- 2010 Barcelona

2010- 2012 Manchester City

2012 Brighton and Hove Albion (loan)

2012- 2013 Racing Santander

2013- 2014 Granada

2013- 2014 Hercules (loan)

2014- 2015 Mallorca

2015- 2016 Hapoel Tel Aviv

2016- 2018 Sabadell

2018 Kairat

International Career:

2008 Israel

Achievement:

None

Career

If I mentioned someone who spent his youth career in La Masia and been part of the Manchester City squad in recent years, you will expect to be someone decent in his footballing career. However, that is not the case for the certain Israeli football player as he is currently playing in the Romanian league. So, who is the Israeli player that is suffered a fall from grace in his footballing career?

Gai Assulin started his youth football exposure in the football school of the Israeli super club, Hapoel Haifa. He moved to Beitar Tubruk youth setup at the age of seven. In 2003, Assulin was recommended by his team coach at the time, Shlomo Scharf to take the young Assulin to FC Barcelona, which he was accepted later. Once Assulin was graduated from Barcelona B in August 2007, he was offered a new senior contract with a 20mil Euro buy-out clause. With the manager of Barcelona B at the time, Pep Guardiola was promoted to the first team, Assulin was rumoured to be one of the players to be promoted to the senior squad. Unfortunately, he missed most of the 2008-2009 season due to injury. On December 2009, Guardiola promoted him and several of his teammates in Barcelona B such as Thiago Alcantara and Jonathan dos Santos to the senior squad. However, Assulin wasn’t impressed by his playing time and parted ways with Barcelona in July 2010.

On December 2010, Gai Assulin joined the rising Manchester City and expressed his wishes to partner his former teammate, Yaya Toure. However, it did not turn Assulin’s fate as he also struggled to play in the first team. He decided to be loaned out in order to get regular playing time. A deal was agreed with Barnsley on November 2011 and their manager, Keith Hill was impressed by his performance. Unfortunately, the deal was collapsed due to the fitness issue. Assulin was subsequently loaned out to Brighton and Hove Albion on an initial one month period. Even Gus Poyet stated that this is the most important chance in his career. He impressed in the AMEX Stadium and Brighton exercised their option to extend his loan deal until the end of the season. However, Assulin was released from Manchester City in May 2012.

Since his departure from Manchester City, Assulin had some nomadic career in Spain for three years. He had signed for several Spanish clubs such as Racing Santander, Granada, Hercules and Mallorca in the span of just three years, and only registered three goals in between these four clubs. After several years out of his home nation, Assulin had his first experience of the Israeli Premier League after a brief spell in Hapoel Tel Aviv. He went back to Spain after just one season to sign for CE Sabadell FC in the third tier of the Spanish football. His stay in Spain was proved to be another short one as his contract was terminated by mutual consent in January 2018.

On 13 February 2018, Kazakhstan Premier League side FC Kairat announced the signing of Assulin on a two-year contract. However, on 30 March, it was cancelled by mutual consent. He remained as a free agent for almost 15 months. On 26 September 2019, Assulin signed a two-year contract with Liga I club Politehnica Iasi. Which he only played three games and no contributions in the current season at the time of writing.

Verdict

Disappointment Rate: 9/10. When you have Barcelona and Manchester City as your past experience, you will be expected to be at least a decent player. However, Gai Assulin is still miles away from being the players that most of the football fans expected when he was still a young player. Still 28 years old, Assulin still has the time to be a decent player, but not the megastar that he and his football fans expected.