The Israel Under-19 team may have lost to England in the final of the European Championship but the future of blue-and-white soccer is as bright as ever. From the likes of Oscar Gloukh to Ariel Lugassy and Ilay Madmon, Israel is developing talent at a record setting pace thanks to the Israeli clubs investing in their youth departments and raising the standard as each year goes by.

The movement began thanks to Maccabi Tel Aviv owner Mitch Goldhar’s desire to see the yellow-and-blue create and develop their own talent as he invested in bringing in a professional staff a number of years ago led by Patrick van Leeuwen who was charged with overassessing a very ambitious process. Not only did Maccabi as a club itself benefit from this move but other clubs around the country understood that in order to be able to compete they would need to duplicate what Goldhar had done for his own team.

Hapoel Beer Sheva, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Petah Tikva and Maccabi Netanya all followed suit and now the Under-19 squad bore the fruit of all of the Israeli club’s labor.

To have the top sports outlets in Europe from Spain to England commending Gloukh, Lugassy and Madmon as to how their futures are very bright and that clubs across the continent should quickly jump on the opportunity to obtain their services prove that something is working here in the Holy Land.

Perhaps we are witnessing a golden generation of talent with Manor Solomon and Liel Abada leading the way for the Under-19 stars but the development must continue and these young guns need to get serious minutes either in the domestic league here in Israel or they should head out to Europe and continue their evolution in greener pastures.

Head coaches in Israel seems to shy away from playing the youngsters and go with the veterans that they know exactly what they will get out of them. In fact, very few teams save Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv featured some of the players on this Under-19 squad and that is something that must change and change sooner rather than later in order to not waste the time, effort and funds that have been put into the youth departments.

This is an opportunity that the future of Israeli soccer can’t miss out on as the foundation has been laid. The senior national team hasn’t been to one of the big tournaments since the 1970 World Cup and the time is ripe to break that streak once and for all.