Manor Solomon, a 25-year-old Israeli soccer star, scored a last-minute game winning goal on Saturday for Leeds United Football Club, sealing his team’s league title in England’s second-tier Championship League and securing promotion to the Premier League.
As a tense game between Leeds and Plymouth Argyle reached stoppage time tied at 1-1, Solomon drove into the penalty box and scored a spectacular solo goal, putting his team up 2-1 and effectively securing the win as time expired.
The win gave Leeds 100 points for the season, enough to secure the northern English side first place in the Championship and a spot in England’s top-tier Premier League for next season.
Leeds was in first place for most on the season, but a late surge from Burnley Football Club brought the championship race to a photo finish, with both Burnley and Leeds finishing with 100 points on the year.
While the two clubs finished with the same number of points, Leeds had a better goal difference, giving them the tiebreaker over their fellow northern English club.
Finishing as the top two in the Championship, both Leeds and Burnley earned promotion to the lucrative Premier League next season, alongside England’s biggest clubs.
After the match, Solomon, who is on loan from London’s Tottenham Hotspur FC, said in an interview that the finish to the season “couldn’t have been more dramatic.”
“I’m so happy to have scored the goal and to get this team first place,” he said. “We deserve it.”
“I can’t put it into words what I’m feeling right now,” he said. “I’ll need to take a few days to digest everything but right now I just want to celebrate.”
As Solomon is on loan from Tottenham for the season and may be called back to the North London club, his future with Leeds is unclear.
When asked if he thinks he’ll be returning next year to represent Leeds in the Premier League, the Israeli midfielder said “We’ll see what will happen, I don’t know.”
“I love this club, that is what I can say,” he added.
Solomon, 25, is from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba, and began his soccer career playing for Maccabi Petah Tikva in the Israeli league.
His first stint overseas was for Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, where he played for two years, scoring 16 goals in 70 appearances for the club.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, he was evacuated from the country by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, making the long journey by car to the Polish border, where he then flew home to Israel.
He then joined the Premier League’s Fulham FC later that year on a temporary one-year loan, thanks to a FIFA rule allowing non-Ukrainian players in Ukraine to suspend their contracts due to the war.
After a successful first year in the top-flight English league, Solomon signed a five-year, $15 million deal with Tottenham in 2023, a major club with a rich Jewish history.
As Solomon did not crack the starting lineup often in his first year with the club, Tottenham loaned him to the second-tier Leeds United so he could get more playing time.
Solomon’s first seasons with Leeds was the most successful of his career, scoring 10 goals and notching 12 assists in 39 games, including the game winner to secure his team promotion to the Premier League for the fist time in two years.
Solomon has also represented the Israeli national team in international competition since he was 17 years old, scoring seven goals in 43 appearances for the blue and white over the last seven years.