Gai Assulin

Barcelona

In August 2007, Assulin graduated to the FC Barcelona B team, and was offered a new contract, a senior contract (a contract granted only after the player turns 16) for another three years and a €20 million buy-out clause. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Barcelona B won the league title with 83 points, and the manager, Pep Guardiola, was promoted to the job of senior team manager. Assulin was rumored to be one of the players that Guardiola would promote to the first team. After missing most of the 2008–09 season due to injury, Assulin received an invitation to participate in pre-season matches with the Barcelona first team. He made his debut first-team start in a competitive match of the Copa del Rey against Cultural Leonesa on 28 October 2009, before being replaced by Eric Abidal after 56 minutes. Due to the lengthy 2009–10 season, many Barcelona players were given breaks towards the end of the year, so on 29 December 2009 Guardiola brought in Assulin and his teammates Víctor Vázquez, Thiago Alcântara and Jonathan dos Santos. On 1 July 2010, Assulin and Barcelona parted ways by mutual consent. They offered him a three-year contract but as they could not offer him a guaranteed first-team squad position and instead sought to develop him at Barcelona B, he refused the offer. Assulin also had a complicated relationship with the manager of Barcelona B, Luis Enrique.

Manchester City

On 14 December 2010, Assulin joined Premier League club Manchester…

Assulin was called up by the Israel national team for their friendly match against Chile on March 26, 2008. He debuted for Israel as a substitute in the 78th minute of the friendly, 14 days before his 17th birthday. By playing in this match, he broke Ben Sahar's record for youngest national team debut by 195 days. He went on to represent the Israeli under-21 national team in preparation at the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, hosted in the country.

Club

As of match played 11 March 2018

Assulin was born in Nahariya, Israel. He started his career in the football school of Hapoel Haifa. In 1999, at age seven, he moved to the Beitar Tubruk youth ranks. In 2003, when he was just 12, Shlomo Scharf, his team coach, proposed to Assulin's parents to consider taking their young prospect to try out for FC Barcelona, where he was accepted into the youth ranks.