Liam Hermesh is set to become the latest Israeli footballer to move into the Austrian Bundesliga. Reports in Israel and Austria said on Friday that the 22-year-old defensive midfielder has agreed to join Grazer AK after his contract at Maccabi Haifa expired.
The deal is agreed but not yet formally completed. Israeli reports say terms are in place for a free transfer, with an official presentation expected within days. The Austrian outlet laola1 reported the same afternoon that Hermesh had already been spotted at GAK's Weinzödl training centre in Graz, though the club themselves have not yet announced the signing.
Born in Ramat Gan in March 2004, Hermesh has been without a club since 1 July, when his Maccabi Haifa contract ran down. Haifa chose not to exercise an option to extend his stay after he returned from a season away, leaving one of Israel's more promising holding midfielders available for nothing.
That season away is precisely what put him on Austrian radars. Loaned to Sheriff Tiraspol for 2025-26, Hermesh made 15 competitive appearances as the Moldovan side finished runners-up in the league and lifted the national cup, beating Zimbru 2-0 in May's final in Chisinau — a match in which Israeli reports credit him with the winner. Playing regular football in a title race abroad, at 21, marked him out from peers still waiting for minutes at home.
According to reporting in Israel, several domestic clubs explored bringing him back into the Israeli Premier League this summer. But the player and his agents, Adam Kidan and Gilad Katzev, prioritised a second spell in Europe. Haifa are also said to have secured a percentage of any future sale, meaning the club that developed him would still profit from a successful stint in Graz.
GAK are a club with history and a point to prove. Austrian champions in 2004 before financial collapse sent them tumbling through the divisions, they returned to the top flight in 2024 and have been assembling a squad to consolidate there. Austrian coverage of the deal framed Hermesh as the answer to a specific gap — a specialist screening midfielder to sit in front of the back line at the Merkur Arena — rather than a speculative punt.
The Austrian Bundesliga has become a genuinely useful middle rung for players of Hermesh's profile. It is a 12-team league, split into championship and relegation groups after 22 rounds, that offers European qualification places, competitive intensity and heavy scouting traffic from Germany. For a defensive midfielder valued by Transfermarkt at a modest €200,000, it is a stage where a good season can change a career trajectory quickly.
There is a practical wrinkle in his favour, too. Austrian reports describe Hermesh as holding Portuguese citizenship alongside his Israeli passport, which would simplify his registration and remove any non-EU quota questions for GAK — and would do the same for any bigger European club that comes calling later.
For Israeli football, the pattern is a familiar and healthy one: a young player squeezed for minutes at a top domestic club goes via a smaller European league, wins something, and earns a move up. If the paperwork is completed as expected, Hermesh will be presented in Graz within days, with the new Austrian season only weeks away.
