A number of top European footballers arrived to play in Israel during the January transfer window - and are already making an impact on the Israeli Premier League.

The biggest names undoubtedly signed for Betar Jerusalem who brought in Spanish striker David Aganzo from Racing Santander and French winger Fabrice Fernandes from Bolton Wanderers.

Betar's French manager Luis Fernandez also signed Israeli Gal Alberman home after a short spell with Spanish side Tenerife.

David Aganzo (Betar Jerusalem)

Scouting the European Leagues

Maccabi Tel Aviv has also been pretty active during January and secured the services of Georgian Giorgi Demetradze and Albanian Elvin Beqiri. The yellow and blue's Dutch manager, Ton Caanen scouted the Eastern European leagues for able players to help his team push for a place in a European competition next year.

Maccabi Petah Tikva took a big gamble when it signed Nantes attacker Patrick Suffo. The player is highly regarded but is also considered to have a controversial record as he once assaulted a referee and is considered a problematic teammate.

However, the biggest signings were in the capital where two highly thought of European players were signed. According to Racing Santander's Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Awat, striker David Aganzo "is very sharp in the penalty area, he is strong and fights for every ball, and he is quite technical and a good header of the ball."

Aganzo who was a highly regarded youth at Real Madrid, scored his first goal for Betar at the weekend. After firing in a free-kick on Saturday against Hapoel Petah Tikva, Aganzo said "It was great fun; I hope to score many more."

Fernandes was perhaps the brightest player on the park on Saturday turning the Petah-Tikva defence inside-out.

Maccabi's foreign contingent also had a bright start to their Israeli careers. Both Demetradze and Beqiri made appearances as Tel-Aviv beat seemingly invincible Maccabi Haifa on Sunday evening.

Patrick Suffo (Maccabi Petah Tikva)

Israel an attractive place to play

The signing of these players alongside already established international players like Giovanni Rosso of Croatia at Maccabi Tel Aviv and Jerome Leroy of France at Betar shows that Israel is becoming a more competitive place to play soccer.

According to ex-Londoner and Israeli soccer fan Ben Green, the standard is definitely improving. "With the influx of larger amounts of money, Israel is no longer seen as an unattractive place to come and play," Green said

"As someone who is used to seeing the English Premiership, I can say Israel has some way to go to match those standards. The players that have come to Israeli clubs in recent months shows that Israeli soccer is on the rise.”