Maccabi Haifa believe they have found their answer to the centre-back problem created by Liseb Eissat's summer exit, with Sport5 reporting the Israeli champions have agreed to sign Dutch defender Nigel Lonwijk from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Lonwijk is an imposing physical presence at 1.95 metres (6ft 5in), born in Goirle in the Netherlands in October 2002. He came up through PSV Eindhoven's academy before Wolves signed him as a teenager, and he has worn the club's shirt ever since — without ever making a single senior appearance for the Molineux side.
That is not a typo. Six years into his Wolves career, Lonwijk's entire footballing education has come away from base, on an unbroken chain of loans: Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands, then a run through the English lower leagues at Plymouth Argyle, Grasshopper Club Zürich in Switzerland, Wycombe Wanderers, Huddersfield Town and, most recently, Luton Town.
The Luton loan, in League One last season, was arguably his best yet. Sport5 credits him with more than 30 league appearances, often deployed out of position at right-back rather than his natural centre-back slot, averaging 10.3 sprints, 3.1 tackles and 2.5 aerial duels won (a 58% success rate) per game. He also helped Luton lift the EFL Trophy.
Durability has been the one question mark. Sport5 notes he suffered three separate hamstring injuries across two seasons, though he stayed fit and available throughout last season at Kenilworth Road — a track record Haifa will hope continues once he swaps English winters for Israeli summers.
Sport5 puts his market value at around €1.2 million, a modest figure that reflects a player still searching for his first senior minutes at his parent club despite six loan spells and a league title with Plymouth in 2022–23.
The comparison in the report's own headline is deliberate. Eissat, a Romanian international who came through Haifa's own academy, left this summer for Bristol City in a reported €2.5 million deal after 33 first-team appearances for the club and a loan spell at Hapoel Hadera. Sport5 draws a direct line between the two — similar build, similar defensive instincts — while stopping short of calling Lonwijk the better player; by its own assessment, Eissat remains the stronger of the pair for now.
Where Lonwijk would fit in is also becoming clearer. Haifa have separately been finalising a deal for a Brazilian defender known in the Israeli press simply as "Tsunami," a 30-year-old who can play at left-back or centre-back and arrives after a spell in Turkey's second tier, having previously played for Levski Sofia in Bulgaria. Sport5's framing suggests the Dutchman would supply the physicality and one-on-one strength in the pairing, leaving more of the distribution and game management to his more experienced partner.
None of this has been confirmed through official Maccabi Haifa channels yet — this is a Sport5 report of an agreed deal, and the article does not spell out whether the move is a permanent transfer or another loan, nor an official fee. Given Lonwijk's contract situation at Wolves and the pattern of the past six seasons, a permanent switch would represent a notable change of course for a player Wolves have never actually fielded.
For Haifa, the broader picture is a squad being rebuilt at centre-back after a summer of departures, with the club still said to be in the market for further defensive reinforcements before Ligat Ha'al gets back underway.
