Greek football writers have found a nickname for Alona Barkat this month, and it isn't a flattering one for whoever sits across the table from her: the Iron Lady. ONE reports that the owner of Hapoel Be'er Sheva has made herself the central character in the transfer saga around Kings Kangwa, refusing to shift her asking price by what the outlet's headline calls, pointedly, not even a single euro.
The pun works in Hebrew as it does in English: Barkat, according to the report, won't give up a euro — the currency her Greek suitors are negotiating in, and the continental competition her club is chasing a place in at the same time. Kangwa, Beer Sheva's Zambian midfielder, has been the subject of interest from both AEK Athens and, more recently, Panathinaikos, and ONE's framing is that Barkat holds the leverage in both conversations because she is simply refusing to blink.
The player himself is coming off the best season of his career. Kangwa was voted the Israeli Premier League's Player of the Season for 2025/26, contributing 12 goals and nine assists as Beer Sheva won the title — the club's first championship in eight years. He is under contract until June 2028, which hands Barkat a strong hand regardless of who is asking.
That leverage has been tested repeatedly this month. Reports in Israel and Greece have described AEK's offers climbing over successive rounds, from an opening bid in the region of €2.5 million toward figures closer to €4 million, with Beer Sheva said to be holding firm near €3.5–4 million before those talks stalled — clearing the way, per ONE, for Panathinaikos to make their own move.
Greek outlets covering the negotiations have not minced words about what it is like to deal with her. "You wouldn't want her sitting across from you in negotiations," ONE quotes the Greek press as writing, describing a businesswoman who will not back down until her position is accepted. It isn't the first time European media has reached for a political comparison — German outlets have previously dubbed her the "Angela Merkel of football" for the same stubborn, unsentimental style.
Barkat's reputation was not built overnight. She bought Hapoel Be'er Sheva in 2007, reportedly for around $1.8 million, becoming the first woman to own a top-flight football club in Israel — a milestone Israeli and international outlets, including the Times of Israel, have documented in profiles of her since. Before football, she and her husband Eli Barkat spent years in Silicon Valley, where the Barkat family was among the early investors behind Check Point and built venture funds of their own.
The turnaround at Beer Sheva has been real, even if the road there wasn't smooth: ONE credits her ownership with four league championships and four domestic cups, achieved across roughly 15 different head coaches — a managerial churn rate that says as much about her demanding standards as any negotiating table ever could.
Her hard line over Kangwa's price also has a specific precedent behind it. Israeli reporting on the saga has pointed back to the sale of winger Tony Wakama for around €800,000 in a previous window — a deal the club came to regret after an early European exit that, in hindsight, a fully strengthened squad might have avoided. That memory is said to be shaping her refusal to sell Kangwa cheaply now, with Beer Sheva also mindful of needing him fit and eligible through their own Champions League qualifying campaign.
As of Thursday, no transfer has been completed on either side of the Athens rivalry. AEK's interest appears to have cooled amid the price gap, and Panathinaikos's move is still, by ONE's own account, at an early stage. For now, the story Greek football is telling itself is a simple one: Alona Barkat has a price, and nobody has met it yet.
