Yossele Goldstein was introduced to football by his brother Haim (who lent his name to the team Maccabi "Haim"), who lost his life in the War of Independence. Yossele's career at Maccabi Tel Aviv started at the team Maccabi "Matatahu", a non-league team, followed in 1946-1947 by a stretch as a central striker at Maccabi "Avraham". He was only 15 years old when he participated in his first training with Maccabi's senior squad and in October 1949 he made his first official appearance in a 3-0 win in a derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

As time passed he began to impress in his role as a quick left-sided midfielder and captured a fixed spot on the club's starting eleven in what would become to be known as Maccabi's "Golden Age". Goldstein was part of the brilliant attacking "quintet", along with Yossele Merimovitch, Shaya Glazer, Eli Fuchs and Tzvi Studinsky, that led the Maccabi team of those days to so many titles and a whole host of incomparable memories. When Maccabi Israel went off to England in 1954, Goldstein stayed with teammate Merimovitch to play on the Jewish amateur side "Wingate" and they were both also selected to play in the national team of London.
In 1955 Golstein caused general bewilderment when he moved to the Johannesburg outfit "Rangers" in South Africa to become the first half-professional footballer in Israel. He stayed in South Africa until 1957, when he returned to Israel for another term at Maccabi Tel Aviv and in his first season back he was already celebrating a league and Cup double. The contribution of this talented left-sided winger was palpable throughout a whole season that ended without the club suffering even one loss. He continued to play for Maccabi until the end of the 1961/62 season, enjoying an impressive harvest of titles: four league championships ('49/'50, '51/'52, '53/'54, '57/'58) and three prestigious State Cups ('53/'54, '57/'58, '58/'59).

Even when living outside of Israel he never abandoned Maccabi and never secluded himself. Throughout the years he coached many different football teams and finished his career at Maccabi in the years between 1987 and 1990 as coach of the children's team "Moshe" and of two other youth teams. Goldstein made 25 appearances for his country and scored one goal in an international friendly against Poland.

photographs courtesy of the Israel Football Association archives