Hapoel Jerusalem believe they have a defender worth fighting for on their books — the trouble is that the country he may end up representing isn't Israel. Sport5 reports that 16-year-old Michael Vakselmen, four years into his development at the club, is being pulled toward Ukraine's national team rather than Israel's, and his family sounds in no hurry to talk him out of it.
Vakselmen holds both Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship, a legacy of family roots that gave him the option of a second flag from birth. According to Sport5, that dual status has now turned into a genuine recruitment question, with Ukrainian interest emerging alongside the usual chase from Israeli clubs.
His father, Rostislav Vakselmen, left little doubt about where his son's heart lies when he spoke to the outlet. "When an offer comes to play for Ukraine's national team, it won't be a question at all — he will play for it," he said.
The teenager plays left-footed centre-back, and his father's description of him to Sport5 leaned on some heavyweight comparisons: a defender in the mould of Virgil van Dijk and Fabio Coentrão, praised for his tactical reading of the game and a passing range the family put at around 40 metres. Those are a parent's words, not an independent scouting verdict, but they capture the scale of the buzz building around a player still four years short of senior football.
That buzz has not gone unnoticed inside Israel. Sport5 reports that Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Beitar Jerusalem have all shown interest in signing Vakselmen away from Hapoel Jerusalem, and that Israel's national team setup has also been keeping tabs on him with an eye toward a future call-up.
The interest doesn't stop at Israel's borders. According to the report, clubs from Spain's top flight made attempts to recruit him earlier this year — a sign that his profile is being tracked well beyond the local game.
For now, Hapoel Jerusalem's response is to try to lock him down rather than risk losing him for nothing. Sport5 says the club is preparing a new contract aimed at keeping Vakselmen in Jerusalem rather than releasing him to a rival suitor.
Dual-nationality cases like this are not unusual in Israeli football, where waves of immigration from the former Soviet Union have left plenty of young players eligible for a second national team. What makes Vakselmen's case notable is how openly the family is signalling a preference for Ukraine at such an early stage — long before any formal approach from either federation has been confirmed.
Nothing here is decided. No call-up, contract offer or federation approach has been made official, and a 16-year-old's path can shift many times before a senior debut for anyone. But the early positioning, as laid out by Sport5, suggests Hapoel Jerusalem may be developing a defender for someone else's national team.
