Maccabi Haifa have added a second name to their goalkeeping shortlist, according to a Sport5 report published Tuesday: Omer Katz, the 28-year-old who has guarded Hapoel Petah Tikva's net since the 2020/21 season.
Sport5's Yigal Goldstein reports that Haifa are looking at signing Katz without paying a transfer fee, framing him as a lower-cost route to strengthening the position between the posts. Petah Tikva, for their part, currently have no plans to let him leave.
The interest in Katz comes as Haifa's preferred target for the job, Maccabi Netanya's Omer Nireon, has stalled. According to the report, Netanya's financial demands for their 25-year-old goalkeeper have proven too steep, pushing Haifa to explore alternatives rather than wait the deal out.
Katz has made 176 appearances for Hapoel Petah Tikva since arriving in 2020, establishing himself as the club's first-choice goalkeeper through their climb back to the Israeli Premier League. He was named the National League's goalkeeper of the season during that promotion campaign.
His path there ran through several clubs. Katz came up through the Maccabi Herzliya academy before joining Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he spent time on the books between 2009 and 2017, and later played for Ramat Hasharon and Beitar Tel Aviv Ramlah before settling in Petah Tikva.
For now, this is a name being floated rather than a deal in motion — Sport5 frames it explicitly as a fallback plan, and Petah Tikva's resistance to releasing their No. 1 goalkeeper means any move would likely require Haifa to either sweeten the approach or wait out the transfer window.
Haifa's chase for a new goalkeeper option sits alongside a separate, ongoing story around Nireon, whom Ynet has also reported as a target — underlining how unsettled the position remains for the club this summer.
