In focus Israeli striker Yossi Benayoun Mary Hannigan on a player from a desert wilderness who is now a target for the top clubs in Europe

"In the desert, take a left, you reach nowhere, that's where Dimona is," said the Israeli journalist when asked about Yossi Benayoun's homeplace, a town in the Negev desert, about 20 miles south of Be'er Sheva, the biggest city in southern Israel.

"It's a dump, a really bad place," he added, "I mean, it even has a nuclear plant."

True enough, the Israelis began building the Negev Nuclear Research Centre just south of Benayoun's home back in the 1950s, a place where, it has always been alleged, nuclear weapons are manufactured. Last year, iodine anti-radiation tablets were given out by the authorities to local residents, following safety concerns about the plant.

"That," said the journalist, "is why Benayoun is so motivated, because that is where he comes from. Many of his team-mates on the Israeli team are from more comfortable, more middle-class backgrounds, so they aren't as motivated or determined, and some are just spoilt.

"Benayoun is a flair player, a genius, but he works so hard. Even now he keeps practising with his left foot, his weaker foot, to make it stronger. He appreciates the life football has given him, having come from such a poor environment, and he never takes it for granted. He works and works and works."

The current superstar of Israeli football, where he has been tagged "The Diamond", began his career with the youth teams at Hapoel Dimona and Hapoel Be'er Sheva, his unemployed father ensuring he never missed a training session. "But they would have to leave really early in the morning because his father did not have a car. Sometimes they would just walk all the way there, along the highway."

Ajax's renowned facility for spotting gifted young players resulted in Benayoun leaving the Negev desert for the club's academy in Amsterdam when he was just 14. Desperately homesick, though, he returned to Israel a year later. He missed his family, he said, and his girlfriend Mirit. His admirers back home were exasperated, believing he had thrown away the chance of a lifetime. They pointed out that, at just 14, he would very probably move on from Mirit. He never did; they are married.

But, despite returning home, his reputation continued to grow. Famously, the London Times declared him to be "the most promising youngster in world football alongside Michael Owen" after an exceptional display against England (with Owen up front) in the European Under-16 Championship.

Back in Israel, he made his senior debut with Hapoel Be'er Sheva as a 17-year-old, scoring 15 goals in his first season, before moving on to Maccabi Haifa, where Avraham Grant, the current Israel coach, was in charge for the player's most successful spell.

Again he prospered, so much so he was called up to the senior national team, scoring four goals in his first two competitive games - admittedly against Cyprus and San Marino (in the Euro 2000 qualifiers) - but that didn't diminish the feeling in Israel that they had found someone who would overtake Eyal Berkovic and Haim Revivo in the national footballing hero stakes.

After helping Haifa win their first league title in seven years, and then retain it, the Israeli Footballer of the Year joined Racing Santander in Spain, in 2002, along with Hapoel Tel Aviv's Ilan Bachar. "The joke in Israel was that Bachar was only signed so Benayoun would have company - honestly, he is a terrible defender," said the Israeli journalist.

In the season just finished, Benayoun's third with the club, his nine goals in 34 appearances helped a very average team avoid relegation from La Liga, finishing fifth from bottom. The assumption, though, is the attacking midfielder will start next season with a new club, possibly an English one.

Liverpool's Rafael Benitez is known to be an admirer, but has concerns about whether the player has the physique to survive life in the Premiership, while Graeme Souness is expected to be at Lansdowne Road tonight to have another look at a player the Newcastle press already claim is likely to be signed during the summer. Bolton, home of Benayoun's Israeli team-mate Tal Ben-Haim, and Blackburn have also expressed an interest, while Arsenal sent a scout to watch him against Real Madrid earlier in the season.

Bizarrely, a Spanish law that confers citizenship on Jews of Sephardi origin who can prove their roots go back to their ancestors' expulsion from Spain in 1492 could yet entitle Benayoun, until now classified as a non-EU player, to a Bosman free transfer, which would surely broaden his options this summer.

"I descend from Jews who resided in Morocco and always maintained Sephardic traditions. I have a paper from the government of Israel that demonstrates that I descend from Spanish Jews," he told the newspaper Marca recently, adding he expected to receive Spanish citizenship in August. Mirit, already with a degree in psychology, and now studying to be a lawyer, helped him "fill in piles of papers" to prove his case.