Kiryat Yam have made their first significant moves of the summer, bringing in forward Itay Bognim from Hapoel Haifa and left back Fares Agbaria from newly promoted Hapoel Ramat Gan, ONE reports, as the north-coast club looks to build on a strong debut Liga Leumit campaign.
Bognim, 25, leaves Hapoel Haifa after six years at the club, the last five of them as a senior squad member following his debut as a substitute against Beitar Jerusalem in January 2021. He managed one league goal for Haifa last season, but ONE describes him as a genuinely talented attacking player, and he arrives at Kiryat Yam to join an attacking group that already features Sako Silla, Ashley Copido and Ilya Potkin.
Agbaria, 21, is a different kind of addition: a left-sided defender who spent the past season on loan at Hapoel Ramat Gan and played a significant role in that club's promotion to Ligat Ha'al, scoring twice in the deciding playoff matches that sealed it. Ramat Gan's promotion was itself a notable story - the club returned to Israel's top flight in May after 13 straight seasons in Liga Leumit.
Agbaria's move to Kiryat Yam is a step down a division in terms of where he'll be playing next season, but it puts him at a club with real ambitions of its own and gives him another shot at regular senior football after a breakout loan spell.
Kiryat Yam's own rise has been rapid enough to rival Ramat Gan's. Re-established in 2021 after an earlier incarnation folded, the club shot up from Liga Gimel through the lower divisions, highlighted by an unbeaten debut season in which it won every one of its 22 games and scored well over a hundred goals. It arrived in Liga Leumit for the first time only last season.
According to ONE, the club's stated aim now is to reach the upper playoff bracket again after an impressive first campaign in the division, and the Bognim and Agbaria signings are being framed as reinforcements toward that end - proven experience up front, and a defender arriving fresh from tasting promotion himself.
Neither deal comes with financial terms disclosed, and Kiryat Yam's business is expected to continue as preseason approaches.
