Beitar Jerusalem is busy getting ready for the new season and have made some significant changes despite finishing last year’s campaign in second place just mere points away from Hapoel Beer Sheva who they battled tooth and nail for the championship. Along with bringing aboard a new head coach in Almog Cohen and unveiling a brand new uniform and in-house clothing line, BJR, there are also new additions to the squad.

One of the club’s big off-season signings was attacking midfielder Tomer Yosefi who played for Ukrainian Premier League outfit FC Polissya Zhytomyr this past year. Prior to heading abroad, the 27-yeard old featured for Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Haifa as he returns to Israel in order to help Beitar take the next step towards a league championship.

“First of all, it’s a very exciting new beginning,” Ypsefi began. “I’m really happy to be here at such a big club, with such incredible fans. I’m truly excited to start a new chapter and with God’s help, we’ll get off to a good start this season and I hope we’ll compete for every title. We have a very, very long season ahead of us. In about three weeks we have the Toto Cup match against Hapoel Tel Aviv and after that we have Europe. We’ll take it one step at a time and I’m confident that, with God’s help, we’ll achieve our goals.

Yosefi returned from Europe and was without a doubt one of the most sought-after players in Israel, yet he chose Beitar Jerusalem over a number of other clubs, “First of all, I feel really, really good. Like I already said, I’m very happy to be here. A lot of players say that every footballer should experience playing for Beitar Jerusalem and I think I came here at the right age and at the right time. I truly hope I’ll achieve great things here, that we’ll have a successful season, and that we’ll make these fans as happy as possible.”

As for his integration with the other players on squad, Yoseif only has terrific things to say about his new teammates, “We have a fantastic dressing room. There are a lot of players here that I already know from playing together in the youth national teams. It’s a great group with a really positive atmosphere. We’ve been training for almost two weeks now and thank God, I feel great here.”

With a new team and new head coach also comes a different playing style, but that has not been an issue for Yosefi, “First of all, it’s a style of football that I really connect with. When I was in Ukraine, we played in a very similar system and it was also very similar under Ran Kozuk when I played with Hapoel Beer Sheva. That’s one of the main reasons I chose to come here, the style of play that Almog wants. I really hope we’ll achieve great things together.”

As for the new head coach Almog Cohen, Yosefi feels that he will be able to offer a tremendous amount of his knowledge and general know-how to the team in order for Beitar to get the best results, “I think Almog is one of the people who understands football better than almost anyone in this country. He experienced so much during his playing career. He had a tremendous career as a player, accomplished great things at Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Netanya and I’m sure he’ll be just as successful as a coach.”