A little over a year ago, Daniel Worko was a fringe figure at Hapoel Ramat Gan, working night shifts at a gas station to make ends meet while trying to force his way into a struggling lower-league side. Today, ONE reports, he is a fixture in Beitar Jerusalem's starting lineup — one of the more improbable breakthroughs in Israeli football this year.
Worko was not always the player Beitar signed. At Ramat Gan he began as a winger before coach Oren Kadosh pulled him back into a deeper role, using him as a defensive midfielder and playmaker in the number six position. According to ONE, those around the club describe him bluntly: nasty in the tackle, relentlessly aggressive, unafraid of bigger opponents, and precise on the ball — with an appetite for coaching and self-improvement that stood out even before anyone outside Ramat Gan was paying attention.
The early signs were not promising. ONE reports that Worko scored an own goal in his senior debut and, by his own admission, spent weeks doubting whether he belonged at that level. He kept working — including those overnight shifts behind a cash register — and kept training, and the performances gradually caught up with the ability his coaches saw in him.
The breakthrough came through an eye-catching season in Ramat Gan's midfield, one strong enough to earn Worko a call-up to Israel's Under-20 national team under coach Guy Luzon. That recognition, ONE notes, is what first put him firmly on Beitar Jerusalem's radar.
Signing him was not straightforward. ONE reports that Beitar's professional director, Almog Cohen, had to convince club owner Barak Abramov that Worko was worth more than a squad-filling backup, while Hapoel Ramat Gan initially demanded as much as 1.2 million shekels in compensation for a player who was set to become a free agent. Beitar ultimately paid 240,000 shekels to complete the deal, according to ONE — a figure that, if confirmed by the Israel Football Association's player status committee, would represent a considerable saving on Ramat Gan's opening demand.
Other outlets covering the original transfer gave a similar picture with slightly different numbers: Sport5 reported Ramat Gan had sought around one million shekels in "appreciation fees," with the final sum left for the player status committee to decide, while Walla! Sport confirmed the compensation issue was still open when the deal was announced.
Worko signed a three-year contract with Beitar, with an option for a fourth, on wages of roughly 20,000 shekels a month before bonuses — a salary Walla! Sport reported was set to rise each year of the deal. "I am very happy and excited to fulfill a dream and arrive next season at Beitar Jerusalem," he said at the time, quoted by Walla! Sport, while also making clear his immediate priority was different: helping Hapoel Ramat Gan win promotion before he left.
Beitar's football management made no secret of their ambitions for him. Ynet reported that the club's hierarchy expected Worko to play a "significant role" in the squad from his very first season in Jerusalem, rather than serve as a bit-part option behind more experienced midfielders.
That expectation has now been met. Worko has moved from unknown lower-league discovery to a player Beitar's coaching staff trust in their first-choice midfield — a rapid rise that, ONE's report makes clear, was built less on natural talent alone than on the grinding work ethic that got him through those gas-station shifts in the first place.
