Hapoel Petah Tikva have turned to a familiar face ahead of the new Israeli Premier League season. The club announced on Friday that French forward Franck Rivollier is returning on a one-year contract with an option for two further seasons. The 25-year-old comes back barely a year after leaving, with the news arriving as the squad worked through its pre-season camp in Pravets, Bulgaria.
The signing carries an edge that goes beyond routine squad-building. Rivollier spent last season with Maccabi Petah Tikva, Hapoel's neighbours and rivals, and Hebrew-language coverage reached for the city's well-worn shorthand for such transfers: crossing the road. Having made that journey once already, from Hapoel to Maccabi last summer, the striker is now making it in reverse.
His first spell in blue was brief but well-timed. Rivollier arrived in January 2025 from Bulgarian side Spartak Varna and slotted into a team chasing promotion under head coach Omer Peretz, scoring four goals in 19 appearances as Hapoel sealed their return to the top flight at the end of that campaign. His contract then ran down and he moved across the city.
At Maccabi he managed six goals over the course of last season — steady rather than prolific. But the return will inevitably be read through the prism of local rivalry: direct switches between the two Petah Tikva clubs are uncommon enough to sting, and Rivollier has now made one in each direction inside twelve months.
The player, for his part, leaned into the reunion rather than the rivalry. "I am excited to pull on the Hapoel Petah Tikva shirt again," he said in remarks released through the club. "My connection with Omer and with the crowd was something exceptional in my previous spell, and I am thrilled to open my second chapter at the club, in the top flight. I will do my utmost to prove myself and help the team meet its goals."
Born in Saint-Étienne and standing 1.92 metres, Rivollier came through in France with Lyon's reserves and Stade Rennais' B side, taking in a loan at Stade Briochin before a spell with Olympic Charleroi in Belgium. He first arrived in Israel in 2023, and his 11 goals for Hapoel Afula in 2023-24 remain his most productive season. A half-year detour to Spartak Varna followed before Petah Tikva, in both of its footballing colours, became home.
One detail is worth flagging. While one of the two reports stated flatly that the striker has signed, the fuller account described an agreement with the formal signature still to come, after which Rivollier is expected to link up with the squad during the Bulgaria camp. Neither suggested any obstacle remains.
For Peretz, the logic is straightforward: Hapoel go into the 2026-27 top-flight campaign wanting more physical presence and depth up front, and Rivollier offers both, along with an existing relationship with the coach and a dressing room he already knows. For the player, returning to the club where his promotion cameo made his local name is a chance to establish himself in the Israeli Premier League properly — this time from the first day of pre-season rather than a January arrival.
