He could have arrived in the Serie A already four seasons ago, when his excellent performances on the field in Austria put him in the spotlight. It was Roma who showed interest in Shon Weissman, the Israeli striker who seemed among the most popular European profiles and in full launch: in the end, however, Italy was not his destination but Spain. The one to pick him up was Valladolid of Ronaldo, beating the competition of Schalke, from there a long all-Spanish race between the white and blue and Granada, with whom he managed to leave a mark in Segunda Division but a little less in Liga.
However, Serie A comes now: Walter Sabatini has gifted him to Filippo Inzaghi for this winter market, an extra help for the Granada attack that was looking for a reinforcement around Europe. The Israeli comes to chase salvation, but he also brings with him an important load of criticism, with which he has had to forcibly share the last few months spent more on the bench than on the field.
The reason? More political than sports: beyond the performances seen on the field, in fact, Weissman ended up in the eye of the storm last October, in the midst of the conflict that sees Israel and Palestine as protagonists: the case is traceable to some tweets, likes and retweets by the player, arrived a few hours after the Hamas attack. "Destroy. Tighten. Crush. To God's revenge”, “What is the logical reason why 200 tons of bombs have not already been dropped on Gaza?”. And again: “Why doesn't Ezael shoot him in the head?!?”, with an image in which an Israeli soldier is seen pointing his rifle at two alleged naked Palestinian terrorists. This is what Weissman wrote and shared, in addition to the likes put to tweets as disturbing as “All of Gaza supports terrorism. All of Gaza is dead”. Everything was then promptly deleted, with the player blaming his social media manager. But without much success.
In the following weeks, the player was reported to the authorities by the Palestinian community residing in Granada for incitement and provocation to violence. And he ended up on the bench, even not called up for the away match against Osasuna given the presence in Pamplona of the Indar Gorri, left-wing Basque nationalist ultras group. Weissman also made himself noticed in the national team: after a goal comes the Hebrew insult in Israel-Switzerland, played in Hungary and valid for the European qualifications. A story closed only yesterday with the transfer to Salerno. To forget in order to be able to score goals again.