Maccabi Tel Aviv are still pushing to bring Gabi Kanichowsky back to Bloomfield Stadium, with ONE reporting that talks with his current club, Hungarian champions Ferencvaros, have run for more than six weeks without a breakthrough.
According to the report, the Israeli champions regard the 28-year-old midfielder as a priority target for the rest of the summer window, having concluded internally that letting him leave for nothing a year ago, rather than meeting his contract demands at the time, was a mistake.
ONE says negotiations began in late June, with Ferencvaros initially valuing Kanichowsky at around €2.5 million. That asking price has since eased to roughly €2m, though a significant gap between the two clubs reportedly remains.
Complicating any swift return, Kanichowsky himself would face a tax penalty of about €250,000 tied to the terms of his move to Hungary, on top of whatever fee the clubs eventually agree, ONE reports. Despite that, the outlet says the player is willing to come back to Maccabi Tel Aviv if the two clubs can find common ground.
The saga was significant enough to come up on a Maccabi Tel Aviv-affiliated podcast this past Thursday, where Kanichowsky was again flagged as one of the club's leading targets for the remainder of the window, according to ONE.
Kanichowsky is a Ra'anana-born product of Maccabi Tel Aviv's academy who was re-signed by his boyhood club in August 2021. Over four seasons he made 188 appearances and won league titles under Robbie Keane, part of a double in his final campaign, before leaving as a free agent for Ferencvaros in July 2025 on a three-year deal.
Since moving to Budapest he has remained a regular contributor and won the 2025-26 Magyar Kupa with the club. Ferencvaros' immediate focus, though, is Europe: they face Trabzonspor over two legs in the UEFA Europa League play-off round, in Turkey on 20 August and at home on 27 August, fixtures ONE suggests could yet shape how the transfer talks develop.
For now, no agreement is in place, and ONE's reporting makes clear the financial gap between the clubs, and the tax bill facing the player, still stand between Kanichowsky and a return to Tel Aviv.
