Yaakov Asayag

Yaakov Asayag (Hebrew: יעקב אסייג; born 1 March 1974) is a former Israeli footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and after retiring from professional football, spent most of his time as the goalkeeper coach and head coach of Liga Leumit side Hapoel Kfar Shalem. Assayag is primarily associated with Bnei Yehuda, where he played for a total of about 12 seasons, and with which he won the only championship in its history, in the 1989–90 season.

Yaakov Asayag

Personal information
Date of birth	(1959-03-01) 1 March 1959 (age 66)
Place of birth	Nof HaGalil, Israel
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Hapoel Kfar Shalem (Manager)
Youth career
	Hapoel Nof HaGalil
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1977	Hapoel Nof HaGalil
1977–1979	Bnei Yehuda	69	(0)
1979–1983	Hapoel Haifa
1983–1992	Bnei Yehuda	260	(1)
1992–1994	Beitar Jerusalem	72	(0)
1994–1995	Hapoel Haifa
1995–1996	Hapoel Ramat Gan
1996–1997	Hapoel Jerusalem
1997–1998	Hapoel Kfar Saba
1998–1999	Hapoel Lod
2001	Bnei Yehuda	3	(0)
International career
	Israel	4	(0)
Managerial career
2025–	Hapoel Kfar Shalem
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Assayag began his career in the youth department of Hapoel Nazareth Illit, and at the age of 17 he was included in the youth team roster. Upon its return to the top league in the 1978/1979 season, Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv signed Assayag as a replacement for Roni Wassersprung who left the team. Assayag played for Bnei Yehuda for two seasons, at the end of which he moved to Hapoel Haifa. In 1980, he recorded an unprecedented achievement when he managed to keep a clean sheet for 746 minutes in a row. He later played for Maccabi Yavne and Hapoel Ramat Gan.

In the 1984-1985 National League Season, he returned to Bnei Yehuda when it played in the minor league, and after a single season, the team returned to the first league. In the 1989/1990, Assayag won the only championship in its history with the team. Assayag continued as the team's goalkeeper until the 1991-1992 National League Season. After eight consecutive seasons with the team, Assayag moved to Beitar Jerusalem and won the championship title with them.

At the end of the season, he left Beitar Jerusalem and began to wander between several teams until he retired from active play at the end of the 1998-1999 National League Season season with Hapoel Lod.

Assayag has four appearances for the Israeli national team in friendly matches.

Assayag is the Israeli goalkeeper who has kept a clean sheet in the most games in history – 171 out of 445 first league games in which he has participated.^[1]