Pantsil to Sign for West Ham Next Week

Israeli paper Haaretz are today reporting that John Pantsil is set to sign a five year contract with West Ham next week when general manager, Paul Aldridge, returns from holiday. The paper claims Pantsil will earn £11,000 pounds a week with West Ham, who will pay Hapoel £750,000 for the player (not the 600,000 euros per season for five seasons as reported yesterday).

Pantsil or Paintsil?

There seems to be some doubt over the correct spelling of the Ghanaian's last name. Until West Ham confirm the signing I'll use 'Pantsil', which is the spelling used in the player's Wikipedia profile. The profile has been updated recently as it mentions his link with West Ham and also reports on the controversy caused by Pantsil at the World Cup,

"Following the first and second goals in Ghana's impressive 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic on 17 June 2006, he celebrated by waving an Israeli flag which he kept in his sock. The flag was a cut off a line of flags that was given to the Israeli public free by Bank Hapoalim before Israel's Independence Day celebrations. He was also seen waving the Israeli flag as the final whistle blew. This flag waving was highly protested by several in the Arab world, who saw the act as an insult directed towards the Palestinians. Some Egypt state run newspapers described the player in question as a 'Mossad agent' or that he was paid for this without providing any basis for the allegations. When the Egyptian commentator saw the flag, he stopped his yelling of "Goal" and said, "what are you doing!?!

Before the final group match versus the USA, the Ghanian FA had John Pantsil receive psychotherapy treatment because they were worried that with all the media attention he was receiving (both negative and positive) that he would be unable to perform in the squad's most crucial match.

Pantsil, said that he simply wanted to thank the people of Israel for their support. He is even more popular in Israel as a result of his gesture and has promised to explain his actions after the World Cup."