Manor Solomon scrolls through thousands of photographs on his phone before locating the image he wants. Among years of snapshots and selfies, he knows precisely where to find it. A tap on the screen brings it into view.
It is a pair of photographs placed one above the other, taken 11 years apart, featuring the same two men. In the lower image, a six-year-old Solomon poses in front of Yossi Benayoun, the Israel icon and former West Ham favourite.
“I was in a football camp during the summer and he came to visit us as a surprise,” Solomon recalls while sitting at a wooden table in the sunshine at West Ham’s Rush Green training ground. “I had a picture with him. My father just got him outside of the room asking for a photo with me.”
The photograph above shows the pair again, both wearing Israel’s colours. This time, however, they are team-mates, after 17-year-old Solomon received his first call-up to the national side.
“We trained together. We shared the dressing room together. It was really amazing to share the dressing room with him. He’s really a hero. He’s the hero of Israeli football. Him and Eyal Berkovic. They are the best footballers we’ve ever had in Israeli football.
“He was my idol. First of all, he’s Israeli. He made it to England. He played in the Premier League. He played for Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham, the biggest clubs in England.
Manor Solomon has signed for West Ham from Tottenham this summer
“Back then I was really little and I was looking up to him. If he made his dream come true, coming from Dimona, a small city in Israel, playing in the Premier League for the biggest clubs, maybe one day I can be the same.
“I really love this game. He was a winger, a number 10, similar to me. Different, but similar. I always looked up to him and said: if Yossi did it, maybe in the future I will be able to get closer to him. I never thought I would get because he was, for me, the best one.”
Benayoun enjoyed two spells with West Ham. He helped the Hammers reach the 2006 FA Cup final before returning to the club on loan from Chelsea in 2012.
The two are now friends, and Solomon called Benayoun after learning he was set to leave Tottenham and interest from West Ham and other clubs began to emerge.
“I had a few options,” Solomon says. “I asked him what he thought was the best option because I wanted to hear his opinion. Obviously, he’s played for West Ham. And he told me that he sees me in English football. For him, I’m really suitable and I really fit English football. And West Ham can be a really, really good place for me.”
Solomon’s transfer makes him the first player to move directly from Tottenham to West Ham since Callum Davenport in 2007. When Mohammed Kudus went in the opposite direction last summer, he became the first player to do so since Scott Parker in 2011.
The 27-year-old admits, though, that he had not realised how intense the rivalry between the two clubs was. “I didn’t know it,” he says with a laugh. “So, let’s say I came from Manchester United, it would be different?”
Oh yes.
“Coming from Spurs… because they hate each other?”
Oh yes.
“Okay. Yeah, I didn’t know. I know everyone in London hates each other, especially the big clubs. Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham. They all hate each other, but I didn’t know how big this is.”
Oh yes. So, does Solomon have a message for West Ham supporters hoping they will go easy on their new signing?
“It doesn’t matter where I came from. It doesn’t matter. I think if I came from Spurs, I came from Liverpool, I came from Fiorentina, for me it doesn’t matter. I’ll just try to give my best regardless of where I came from.”
Solomon says he was unaware of the rivalry between Spurs and West Ham
There is another rivalry he’s aware of, though.
‘I’ve heard about the rivalry between West Ham and Millwall,’ says Solomon. ‘I heard it’s really big. I think it’s one game before the national team break. So, there’s plenty of games until this one. I think a friend of mine told me about the rivalry because I didn’t know it before. And then also here at the club everyone told me it’s a big rivalry. Of course, West Ham is the big club between the two. But Millwall fans I know are really harsh and tough. So for sure against West Ham it will be even bigger.’
Solomon’s time at Spurs was blighted by injury, but he does know what it takes to help fire a club to promotion. He was on loan at Leeds when they won the Championship in 2024-25, scoring the stoppage-time winner at Plymouth that secured the title.
‘There is a big difference between the Championship and the Premier League,’ he adds. ‘West Ham is a big club that can be back in the Premier League and then remain there for a really long time.
‘Everyone knows that West Ham belongs in the top half of the Premier League. Three years ago they won a European title. I’m sure if the club goes in the right direction, this club will fight again for Europe in the Premier League.’
