Jonathan Assous

Assous began his professional career in the Ligue 2 with club AS Nancy. Sparingly making a league appearance, he moved down to the Championnat National to play with Nîmes. Fine performances in the Championnat earned him a contract with Angers. There he grabbed headlines for his rough play which got him ejected on numerous occasions. During his stint with Créteil, he trialed with Nice and impressed then-manager Frédéric Antonetti. Unfortunately, contractual problems with Créteil ended his chance of making it to Ligue 1 for the first time in his career. Instead, Assous joined Reims where he was able to carve out a spot in the starting 11. After the successful acclimation of French midfielder Rudy Haddad to life in Israel, Maccabi decided to look for more Jewish footballers who would not count against the foreign player cap. Frenchman Kevin Pariente and Americans Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein were originally scouted for the club. After Maccabi could not come to terms with their respective clubs, they turned to Assous who was having a good season in France. Some fans were vocally opposed to signing Assous because of his previously unsuccessful trial with Hapoel Kfar Saba and lack of "star quality". Immediately after being bought, Assous went to the Jewish Agency offices in Paris to fill out all necessary forms for receiving Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. In 2008, he was joined in Israel by his brother, Gary who signed with Maccabi Netanya. From 2009 to…