As time goes on, the debate surrounding Joshua is only growing. Kesher Hapoel Beer Sheva is without a doubt one of the highest quality foreigners to land in Israeli football, but he is also the player who provokes the biggest controversy. Which is more: a fantasist or a vagrant? A hero or a villain? Holy or wicked? As with any recent discussion, it’s clear that it’s all about position, but one can try and ask the question differently: Would you like Joshua in your group (given the economic possibility, of course)? And this is a question for which there is no unequivocal answer.
On the one hand, he is truly a quality player. Although the Portuguese was brought in by Barak Bachar already in the summer, he did not really find his place under the tough coach, and was discovered precisely after Bachar resigned – and Yossi Aboksis replaced him. Since then, Joshua has become “Go to Guy” – who goes through everything in the game , And he is also responsible for Be’er Sheva’s two great achievements: winning the state cup, after 23 years, and qualifying for the home stage of the Europa League this season against all odds.
But alongside the material, watching Joshua is a real experience for the eyes – his ability to dribble, deliver, produce goals from nothing, produce fire in games that sometimes seem as dry as a pack of crisps, is irreplaceable in our football. It turns out that Hapoel Beer Sheva is also irreplaceable – which has been difficult to function without him in the past year.
But on the other hand, there is also the head (and not in the sense of bumps): many times, alongside the wonderful ability as a footballer, came an equally wonderful ability in irresponsible behavior – from the time he attacked * his * assistant coach, through the elbow to Almog Cohen who is not clear how not Ended in red, and until the spitting at Avi Rikan in the last game against Maccabi Tel Aviv. And this is not only a moral question – but also a professional question: Is it worth keeping a player on the field who can on the one hand win a game alone, but on the other hand one brutal offense of his can also lose a game – and harm the whole team?
Walking on Joshua is, in the end, a gamble. Like any gamble, it holds a tremendous opportunity (and Beer Sheva fans have enjoyed it immensely for the past year and a half), but also a considerable risk – a risk in which it is possible to lose everything. My answer to the dilemma? To me, the gamble is excessive. A healthy team should not include a person who is capable of damaging all of its texture, and who is capable of throwing a ninety-minute effort in the blink of an eye. With all due respect to the dribbles, to the dedication – even to the spectacular goals. For this there are highlights videos. Not the life of a functioning group.
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