Hapoel Ramat Gan will barely recognise its own dressing room when the Ligat Ha'Al season kicks off. ONE reports that the newly promoted club has brought in roughly 20 new players over the summer while around 15 left, amounting to one of the most sweeping squad overhauls in the division this year.
The rebuild follows a turbulent recent past for the club, which changed hands this summer when former footballer Avi Yechiel completed a takeover and became the club's new owner, promising what he called a 'new era' after Hapoel Ramat Gan had at one point been at risk of financial collapse.
On the touchline, the top-flight campaign will be led by head coach Masai Dago, who arrived from Bnei Yehuda to take charge of a squad that needed rebuilding almost from scratch after clinching promotion from Liga Leumit.
The marquee summer arrival is Nigerian forward Christopher Boniface, who signed a two-year contract with an option for a third season. The 24-year-old, who stands 1.80m, built his career outside Nigeria, breaking through with Van in Armenia's top flight before moving to Ararat Yerevan and, most recently, Al-Harriyat in Qatar's second division — Walla Sport described him as a versatile attacker capable of playing centrally or off the wing.
Hapoel Ramat Gan also added experience in the shape of winger Matan Hozez, 30, who joins after leaving Hapoel Jerusalem this summer for a new chapter in his career.
Beyond those two headline names, ONE's report lists close to twenty further arrivals, among them Brazilian-linked signings Luan Campos and Marcio Silva, defender Tamir Glazer, forward Getachew Yablo, goalkeeper Daniel Tishler and midfielder Marius Nubisi, alongside a string of domestic squad additions rounding out a roster built almost entirely anew for the step up in class.
The overhaul cuts both ways. Among those to leave the club are forward Ezekiel Henty, Mohammed Adams and Nir Barda, part of a group of roughly 15 players no longer with Hapoel Ramat Gan as the squad that won promotion has been largely dismantled and rebuilt for the higher level.
ONE puts the club's overall budget for the campaign at somewhere between 26 and 28 million shekels, funding what the outlet frames as the busiest transfer window of any Ligat Ha'Al club this summer.
Fan interest, by contrast, remains modest for now: ONE reports around 600 season tickets sold so far, a reflection of a club still building its top-flight identity under new ownership.
Looking ahead, ONE's preview panel projects a finish somewhere between eighth and thirteenth place, and puts Dago's chances of seeing out the full season in the job at roughly 75% — both explicitly framed by the outlet as forecasts rather than certainties for a squad this freshly assembled.
For a club that has changed almost everything about itself in a single summer — ownership, coaching staff and the vast majority of the playing squad — the immediate target is simply survival in Ligat Ha'Al, with the more ambitious talk left for another day.
