Maor Siso doesn't pretend Kiryat Yam can spend like the clubs above them. What he insists on, the National League coach told ONE, is that the budget won't be an excuse for how high his team aims this season.
"We aspire to the top, even though we have one of the lowest budgets in the league," Siso said, framing the club's approach to 2026/27 not as damage limitation after a first season in the division, but as a genuine push to establish themselves.
The comments came on the back of a statement result: Kiryat Yam beat Maccabi Bnei Reineh 3-1 in the Toto Cup group stage, a notable scalp given Bnei Reineh play their football a tier higher, in the Israeli Premier League. It was exactly the kind of pre-season signal a modest, newly established Leumit side wants heading into the new campaign.
Squad-building is still a work in progress. Siso said Kiryat Yam are missing two players before he considers the roster complete, but he sounded content with what he already has, pointing to healthy internal competition for places as he continues to work alongside the club's professional manager on further additions.
He was warm about the environment behind the scenes too, describing a staff stocked with people who have previously worked in the top flight and a club culture he called family-oriented — the kind of infrastructure, he suggested, that doesn't always come with a rock-bottom budget, and one that feeds a winning tradition already lifting morale inside the squad.
Siso also used the interview to draw a clear line under last season. Kiryat Yam's historic promotion campaign began with a four-point deduction and turned messy at times as the newly promoted side fought to establish itself in the division. This time, the coach promised, there will be no such turbulence — just a calm, settled campaign built around the group he is assembling.
That backdrop matters. Kiryat Yam won Liga Alef North to reach Liga Leumit for the first time and, despite starting 2025/26 in the red on points, finished a credible sixth in their debut season in the division — proof, in Siso's telling, that the club's ambitions aren't just talk.
