Kings Kangwa is about to get a very significant pay rise. ONE reports that the Zambian midfielder has agreed to leave Hapoel Beer Sheva for Panathinaikos on a four-year contract through the summer of 2030, with a new salary of around €1 million a year — roughly triple what he was earning in Israel.
The move is also a windfall for Beer Sheva. According to the report, Panathinaikos will pay a total of €4.5 million for Kangwa: €3.8 million upfront plus a further €700,000 in performance-related bonuses.
It is a striking return on investment. Beer Sheva signed Kangwa from Red Star Belgrade in the summer of 2024 for roughly €800,000, and the 27-year-old repaid that outlay many times over on the pitch, becoming one of the Israeli Premier League's most productive midfielders.
ONE notes he made 40 appearances in all competitions last season, scoring 12 goals and adding 11 assists — numbers that explain why a club of Panathinaikos's stature moved to secure him.
The Greek giants reportedly reached an initial understanding with Kangwa as far back as May, with sporting director Stefanos Koutoulis credited by the outlet as the driving force behind the pursuit. Kangwa is set to fly to Athens for a medical and to put pen to paper once his commitments in Israel are finished.
Those commitments include one more assignment in a Beer Sheva shirt: the club's Champions League second qualifying round tie against Iceland's Víkingur Reykjavík. Beer Sheva lost the first leg 2-1 in Reykjavík on July 21, leaving Kozuk's side needing to overturn the deficit at home before Kangwa's move to Greece is finalised.
Kangwa's route to this payday has wound through several countries. Born in Kasama, Zambia, he had a brief spell with Beer Sheva as a teenager back in 2017 before returning home, then went on to play for Arsenal Tula in Russia and Red Star Belgrade in Serbia, with a loan stint at Belgium's Kortrijk along the way, before rejoining Beer Sheva permanently in 2024.
He is a regular for the Zambia national team, for whom his older brother Evans also plays. For Beer Sheva, his departure represents both a substantial financial boost and the loss of a player who had become central to the team's attacking play — a trade-off Israeli clubs increasingly face once a breakout talent catches the eye of Europe's bigger leagues.
