The afterglow of Hapoel Ramat Gan's return to the Israeli top flight has been cut short by a pay dispute. Midfielder Gidi Kanyuk says he is days away from suing the newly promoted club over 140,000 shekels in bonuses and compensation he insists were promised and never paid.

Kanyuk, a 33-year-old attacking midfielder who was part of the squad that sealed promotion in May, set out his grievance in remarks to Sport 5's Raz Zahavi. He said he had approached chief executive Moshe Barkat "countless times" about a promotion bonus and further payments he believes he is owed, "but I was not given any satisfactory answer". "I contacted a lawyer yesterday," he added, "and in the coming days I intend to file a lawsuit."

According to the report, the 140,000-shekel figure — which the player states as a net amount — comprises three elements: a bonus for winning promotion, bonuses tied to his goal involvements, and an agreed compensation payment said to be triggered because his contract was not taken up for a further season. No contracts or documents were published, and the sums remain the player's own account of what he is owed.

For all his frustration, Kanyuk stopped short of blaming Barkat personally, describing the chief executive — a retired senior police commander who took charge of the club's day-to-day running — as the last person he would level accusations at. His complaint, as he framed it, is with a club that has not paid what he says it undertook to pay.

Nor is he alone. Ezekiel Henty, the Nigerian centre-forward who arrived in January for the second half of the promotion campaign, went public first, airing his grievances in a social-media post; according to the report, he is claiming 45,000 shekels net. It was Henty's post that prompted Kanyuk to take his own complaint to a lawyer.

Hapoel Ramat Gan responded on Friday evening with a statement disputing the framing rather than the obligations. "Since the new ownership arrived, the club's management has been working in an orderly and responsible way to settle the commitments relating to last season," the club said. "Contrary to what has been claimed, these are not payments whose due date has passed or commitments the club has breached. The club is committed to meeting its obligations in full, and the handling of the open matters is expected to be completed in the coming weeks."

The dispute may extend beyond the two players who have gone public. Israeli reporting on the club's response also lists claims from two further members of last season's squad, of 40,000 and 35,000 shekels respectively — a sign that the bonus question touches a wider group of the promotion-winning dressing room.

Both players have already moved on. Transfermarkt records show Kanyuk joining Bnei Eilat on 1 July, with Henty signing for Hapoel Rishon LeZion the same day, departures consistent with Kanyuk's assertion that his deal was not extended into the new season.

The timing is awkward for the Ramat Gan club, which ended a 13-year absence from the top division in May and has spent the summer assembling a squad for its first Ligat ha'Al campaign since 2013, recruitment that has included the Brazilian forward Luan Campos. A public row with two members of the promotion-winning dressing room is not the backdrop it would have chosen.

End-of-season bonus rows are hardly unknown in Israeli football, where promotion clauses are a staple of second-tier contracts. Few, though, surface this quickly or this publicly.

The dispute escalated on Sunday, when Kanyuk's lawyer, Amir Cohen, sent Hapoel Ramat Gan a formal warning letter demanding immediate payment of 350,000 shekels in total — well beyond the 140,000 the player initially cited — and giving the club seven days before a lawsuit is filed without further notice. According to the letter, the claim now spans unpaid promotion and achievement bonuses, unlawful termination during a two-season contract without notice or a hearing, more than a year of missing or partial pension contributions, unlawful salary deductions and irregular vacation payments — conduct Cohen described as a systematic breach of the player's rights.

The club had not responded to the letter at the time of the report. A summer that began with long-awaited promotion looks set to continue in front of lawyers.