Joining the Team

September 11, 2006 - 11:17 AM by Allison

Israel has some outstanding players on their national team — who really stand out.

Israeli national sport teams are recently enjoying the services of two foreign athletes who became Israeli citizens: Argentinean Roberto Colautti in soccer and American Jamie Arnold in basketball. Both have become first squad members and integral parts of their teams, as Colautti scored the winning goal against Estonia and Arnold became his team leader in scoring and rebounding in the current campaign.

Some might say that allowing non-Israeli athletes to take part in national teams play is contradictory to the national teams concept: a national team should be comprised from Israeli nationalities, not from over-seas mercenaries. After all, these players came here to play for a professional club and very well could have been playing in some other country.

Yet, the very fact that these players play in the national team speaks for itself, mainly because there is very little money involved (in comparison to their salary in the professional clubs, that is). That rules out the mercenary claim. Could it be that these athletes play for the national team simply because they care? It very well could be.

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