Bnei Sakhnin have completed the signing of Romanian goalkeeper Raul Bălbărău, the club announced on Saturday, adding a fresh contender for the number-one shirt ahead of the 2026/27 Israeli Premier League season. The 25-year-old arrives as a free agent after his contract at top-flight side Petrolul Ploiești expired this summer. He has agreed a one-year deal that carries a club option for two further seasons.
Bălbărău, who stands 1.89 metres and was born in Galați, spent the past two and a half years at Petrolul after joining in early 2024, making 47 appearances in all competitions and keeping 14 clean sheets. Last season he played 30 matches, conceding 36 goals with seven shut-outs, as the Ploiești club finished 12th in Romania's top division and preserved their status by a margin of three points.
His route to the Romanian top flight was not a conventional one. He won the Liga III title with the historic Steaua București club in 2020/21, then moved to Debrecen in Hungary, where league opportunities never came. A loan spell at Noah in Armenia gave him regular senior football instead.
He has been capped once at under-21 level for Romania, in 2022, and is valued at around half a million euros. One report noted that he also holds Moldovan citizenship, a detail matched by his transfer-registry record.
The goalkeeper becomes the sixth signing of Sakhnin's busy summer window, following Iyad Abu Abid, Modestus Vorobjovas, Niv Livnat, Norberto Carlos and Sana Gomes, and the fourth foreign player recruited for the new campaign. He is expected to link up with a squad currently at a pre-season training camp in Hungary under head coach Yossi Abukasis, who took charge of the club in February.
The arrival immediately raises questions about the standing of Mohammed Abu Nil, the 24-year-old who has been Sakhnin's first-choice goalkeeper in recent seasons. According to one account, the incumbent's representatives were surprised by the move, having understood that he had been assured of the starting role. How that competition is resolved may become one of the more delicate management tasks of Abukasis's first full pre-season in charge.
For a club that finished last season in mid-table and is aiming higher, the logic of the signing is straightforward: proven top-flight minutes in a comparable European league, at no transfer fee, on terms that protect the club if the move succeeds. The option structure means Sakhnin can retain Bălbărău until 2029 if he establishes himself, while committing to only a single season up front.
The recruitment drive is not finished. The club is still reported to be pursuing a striker and an additional winger before the window closes, suggesting the squad that opens the campaign may yet look different again from the one currently working in Hungary.
Update, 19 July: reporting the following morning added a sharper edge to the goalkeeping question. Abu Nil is said to have learned of Bălbărău's signing through the media rather than from the club, with those close to him expressing surprise at the decision.
Abu Nil came up through Sakhnin's own system, while the push for a new goalkeeper is reported to have come from coach Yossi Abukasis. Bălbărău is expected to join the squad's training camp shortly.
