Swapping sirens of war in Israel for cheers and football in Hong Kong, midfielder Braunshtain’s out to resurrect career
- Barak Braunshtain began career with Kitchee, but opted for overseas move when club wanted him to get a Hong Kong passport
- Now the 24-year-old wants to play for the city and has begun the naturalisation process since returning from Israel
Barak Braunshtain said he woke to the sound of “sirens all over Israel” on the morning of October 7, and until he left the country the same noise would prompt a rush to the bomb shelter beneath his flat.
The 24-year-old arrived in Hong Kong in January, returning to the city in which he was born and determined to resurrect a footballing career that had stalled in the Middle East.
Now with Eastern in the Hong Kong Premier League, he hopes to obtain a passport and fulfil his dream of playing for the city, so he can “give back to the place that gave me so much in football, and in life”.
Still, though, the memories of those days in Tel Aviv are fresh and have made a lasting impression on the young midfielder.
“At the start, it was very scary,” Braunshtain, who was living with his mum at the time, told the Post. “My brother’s family came to stay with us. He has a two-year-old daughter … and you try to play with her in the bomb shelter.
“His wife gave birth to another child on October 8, he would go to the hospital to be with her, because he was scared something was going to happen. It would mean he wasn’t in the shelter [during attacks], and the only thing I was thinking about was whether they were safe.”