Wembley, November 2018, England versus the U.S.
It should still have been the start of something for Kenny Saief, but it turned out to be the end.
After 120 caps, Wayne Rooney’s England career concluded that night with a rush of plaudits and admiration. Saief’s time on the international stage also drew to a close quietly after a fourth appearance for his country.
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On the field for 17 minutes, there was a flicker of promise: a dribble past his marker, some deft touches, a key pass forward through the England lines. Then the full-time whistle blew and the relative newcomer to the USMNT fold left the pitch hoping to be in the next squad when Dave Sarachan’s side travelled to Belgium, the country where he played club football for Anderlecht. The call never came.
Five days later, when the USMNT faced Italy, Saief was absent through injury. It was a grimly recurring motif.
He had overcome so many obstacles to reach that level, representing the United States thanks to interpreted coffee grounds (yes, really… more on that later) and cheating death on the operating table.
That autumnal USMNT swan song was only five years ago but, for Saief, it feels like a distant memory. Since then, he has played club football back in the U.S., in Poland, in his family’s homeland of Israel and now in Baku, the wind-whipped oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan.
A lot has happened in that time; a global pandemic, conflict in Europe and now the war in Israel and Gaza which has acute resonance for Saief, who is living 1,000 miles from his family in Israel.
He was born in Panama City, Florida, to Druze-Israeli immigrants and lived in the U.S. until his family returned to Israel when he was three. He even appeared in two international friendlies for Israel before switching allegiance to the U.S. in 2017 after being included in Bruce Arena’s plans for that year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
On his debut, a 2-1 win against Ghana in Connecticut, Saief felt a twinge in his groin and fate struck before he could join up with the squad for the subsequent tournament in the U.S.
Saief made his USMNT debut vs Ghana in 2017 (Ira L Black/Corbis via Getty Images)The twinge became an injury that led him to some bleak places and, he feels, eventually closed the door on his international hopes even if he did eventually return to the squad for three more games — against Peru, Columbia and that last outing at Wembley.
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It was tough to reconcile for Saief, but his love for the game remains undiminished. Now he is enjoying his football once more, trying to help his club Neftchi Baku overhaul Qarabag as Azerbaijan’s top side under the tutelage of former Romania international Adrian Mutu, who also played for Chelsea, Inter Milan and Juventus.
Simply playing every week again has brought a renewed sense of joy to Saief and validation for moving to such a far-flung destination.
He is making peace with his frustration at too much time missed with injury. “I feel good with my body now but I had some time where I struggled,” he says. “I don’t want to put this as a main excuse but, yeah, it’s played a huge part in my career.”
There is little need for the caveat. Saief, 29, has suffered more than his fair share of misfortune since withdrawing from that first USMNT camp with an abdominal problem and flying to Israel for an exploratory operation.
“The surgeon made a mistake,” he recalls. “He hit my bowels and then there was an infection, which made a huge problem. It could have been, with luck, something that would have kept me out for maybe two or three weeks, but it ended up taking me maybe a year to come back and play.”
Saief was sent home to recover after the initial surgery only to become seriously ill. He was rushed back into hospital where he remained for four months.
Despite the consequences of his ordeal, he did not pursue legal action against the surgeon responsible. “At first I was too shocked from what happened to focus on going to court,” he says. “I wanted to play football again. That’s all I wanted to do.”
Saief in action for Anderlecht against Spartak Trnava in the 2018-19 Europa League (Vincent Van Doornick/Isosport/MB Media/Getty Images)His career had been in the ascent, culminating in his national call-up. Nine goals in a season for struggling Israeli side Ironi Nir Ramat HaSharon brought him to the attention of scouts from the Belgian club Gent. His move to the Jupiler Pro League led to Champions League and Europa League football, and top-four domestic finishes in three successive seasons.
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He scored in a Europa League win against Turkish club Konyaspor in 2016 and then starred at Wembley when Gent knocked out Harry Kane’s Tottenham Hotspur five months later.
“I just remember when the ref whistled the end of the game and you knew we’re through to the next round, and that feeling…,” he says. “Tottenham was a very strong team. They were second in the Premier League and we beat them — an amazing thing for Gent and even for Belgian football.
“Every player wants to feel this every year, you know. And Champions League — to hear the anthem… it’s difficult to explain the feeling. It’s like goosebumps just standing and listening to it.”
Saief slides in on Kane at Wembley (Stephen Pond – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)His 15 goals and nine assists across three seasons alerted bigger clubs to his ability and Belgian giants Anderlecht signed him around the same time as the USMNT came calling. Arena telephoned him directly to talk him into a change of allegiance, but representing the U.S. had long been Saief’s dream.
For his parents, it was a special moment; to see their son representing the country that, they believed, was the reason for his existence.
Unable to conceive in Israel, they had consulted a Druze religious leader who sought divination in the bottom of a coffee cup.
“There’s a traditional way where you finish your coffee, turn it upside down and wait for it to dry,” explains Saief. “When it dries and you look at the cup you’ll see some pictures. Some guys can read them and explain to you about your life.
“I know from my mom and dad that they went five years (trying for) a child, but the reading said they had to fly to America. They did and I was born.”
Saief remembers little of his early years in Florida, but a love for the game developed during his childhood in Israel, where his parents returned after both lost their own parents within a month of each other in 1996.
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“I grew up with a dad who loved football and in a neighbourhood where it’s all about the football,” says Saief. “You finish school and you play the game. You think and talk about it all day. I didn’t really have a specific team, but I loved to watch the big clubs with the big players.
“It was mostly Real Madrid for me. Sometimes I would play YouTube and hear the famous anthem (Hala Madrid y nada mas) they played just before the game.”
He would go on to visit grounds in La Liga, such as Valencia’s 49,430-seater Mestalla, while with Gent and the move to Anderlecht promised more big European nights. But he could never quite nail down a place in the first team after his lengthy hospitalisation and subsequent injuries.
Loans to FC Cincinnati in MLS, Lechia Gdansk in Poland and Israeli outfit Ashdod followed before his agent presented him with Neftchi’s offer last year.
Saief on loan at FC Cincinnati in April 2019 (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)“I didn’t know anybody here before I came,” he says. “I came for three or four days and it took me time but, in the end, I made the decision to come.
“Neftchi is a big club — I think it’s the oldest club in Azerbaijan and it feels like the most loved club in the country. Lately, they’re not doing as well. They used to be champions almost every year (nine titles since 1992 but only one since 2013) and, in the last 10 years, Qarabag is dominating the league.
“So they’re trying to build a strong team, which is going to take time before we rule the league again.”
Saief was encouraged by the appointment of Mutu as manager and, at the coach’s behest, has changed the position — from his customary left-back to right-winger — to fit the system.
“We’re lucky to have him,” he says. “If you see the places he has been and the knowledge of football when he talks about the tactics or how he wants us to perform to play, it’s very impressive.
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“I am a flexible player, but it’s about trying to learn new stuff and improving my game each day. You can feel the impact of the modern game where they’re expecting even the goalkeeper to have a good technique, to help the team to build up. If you play in a big team now you’re always focused on high pressing, on the quality of the ball to help the attack, and you mostly play against teams who will defend in a low block. So you have to have a lot of options to get through.
“The coach wants us to control the game, to have the ball and to create chances.”
Mutu is overseeing Neftchi (Abdulhamid Hosbas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Communication in a growing team is crucial and it is fortunate for Neftchi that Saief is skilled in that area, too. He speaks four languages fluently — English, Hebrew, Arabic and German — while understanding French and Flemish.
“Partly it’s a necessary thing when you’re moving around so much, but it’s not always easy,” he says. “Some guys here can actually speak English — not everyone — and it can be a little bit difficult with the language sometimes when you want to express yourself. It’s hard to make the nuance.
“But there are guys who are there to translate and to help players who come from abroad. There’s a lot of new cultures. Not everybody is the same.
“You need time to get used to the culture anywhere. I’ve seen a lot in this small career and, wherever I go, I don’t forget where I came from.”
Saief feels his globetrotting career has made him a broad-minded person. He has a worldly outlook but, at the same time, the midfielder is a proud American-Israeli whose thoughts at present are rarely away from the war in Israel and Gaza. His father has passed away, but his mother still lives in Israel. He is concerned about his loved ones back home.
“It’s a very difficult time,” he says. “I know a lot of people involved in protecting us (in the Israeli Defence Force) and it’s a moment where we have to stand together. Hopefully, the kidnapped people can come back to their families and we’ll finish the story quickly.
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“I have friends still playing (football) in Israel, but the league is postponed right now. They’re waiting for things to come back and hopefully, soon, we will come back to live in peace.”
Is it hard to be an Israeli abroad in the current circumstances? “People need to understand that a terror organisation attacked us, our families, our friends,” he says. “It feels like we are the only country that needs to defend itself for defending itself.
“The act that Hamas did, it’s inhuman. The saying that everybody has to say is free Palestine from Hamas, you understand?”
It is a matter that understandably stirs him even if he would rather concentrate on his sport than politics. Even in the dressing room, though, there are small reminders.
One of his team-mates, the midfielder Ataa Jaber, was once captain of Israel’s under-21s team and graduated through the same youth side as Saief. In September, Jaber, who was born in Galilee in northern Israel to a Muslim family, switched allegiance to play for the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) after deciding, according to an interview with Arab News, that it was “impossible to separate politics from sports”.
Ataa Jaber, playing for Neftchi Baku against Besiktas in August (Ahmad Mora/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)Since the PFA joined FIFA in 1998, several Arab players from Israeli professional ranks have moved to clubs competing in the West Bank league.
“In the dressing room it’s where I try to focus only on football,” says Saief. “I don’t want to talk about politics in there. Everybody has his own decision and I have my own. I’m proud to be Israeli.”
Saief has made a lot of friends in the game over his career, not least USMNT captain Christian Pulisic. It is because of the AC Milan star and other Americans flourishing at big clubs that he is excited about the future of Gregg Berhalter’s side.
“A lot of the players I was at camps with back then were still young and they are doing so well now,” he says. “You could see that he (Pulisic) was on a different level. The first step, the acceleration with the ball. A big talent.
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“The main thing with Christian is not only that he is a good football player, he is an amazing human being. I do follow his career and I’m so happy for him.
“If you look at my interviews, I said a good while ago that I believe, in the next 10 years, MLS will be one of the best leagues, and the national side will be an amazing team who will compete until the end in any competition.
“It’s just the beginning. It’s only going to be a stronger team in 2026. The players are still young, so imagine the experience they will have by then.”
Saief during the USMNT’s training session in Kilternan, Co Dublin, in 2018 (Piaras O Midheach/Sportsfile via Getty Images)At 29, Saief is happy to be fit and healthy, settled in Baku with his partner of seven years, Lozan, whom he married last summer.
“I want to enjoy a couple of more years,” he adds. “To play the game, because I still have the power and I feel healthy now.
“It was very hard being out for so long, but I was kept going by the will to be successful, I guess. I always believe that whatever happens, I’m gonna be standing on my legs and trying to do my best.
“I can still compete and try to reach a high level right now at the moment. I’m grateful for what I have.”
GO DEEPER
Israeli football is back on the international stage - but what next?
(Top photo: Ahmad Mora/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
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