The captain of Israel’s football team has displayed the shoe of a young boy he said was kidnapped by Hamas militants during their deadly October 7 raid, an act of solidarity with Israelis held captive in Gaza ahead of the team’s game in Hungary.

Team captain Eli Dasa was addressing a news conference in Felcsut on Tuesday, the small Hungarian village where Israel’s team is set to face Switzerland in a Euro 2024 qualifying match, when he raised the small athletic shoe and displayed it to reporters.

“It is hard to speak at the moment, but I don’t think that any of you can guess what is the story behind this shoe,” Dasa said.

“This kid is in Gaza Strip at the moment with seven, seven people from his family.”

“That’s all what’s left from his house. This left shoe. We wait for him here,” he continued, before standing up and leaving the news conference.

The shoe was taken from Be’eri kibbutz, the small community in Israel from which eight-year-old Nave Shoham was kidnapped along with seven of his relatives on October 7, according to the team’s press officer, Eitan Dotan.

Three members of the boy’s family were killed during the raids, Dotan said.

Candid Cole

Cole Palmer believes his meteoric rise to the England team has vindicated his £40m move from Manchester City to Chelsea, but admits his maiden senior call-up was never in his thoughts when he agreed to his summer switch.

Palmer has been a revelation under Mauricio Pochettino since moving to Stamford Bridge. The 21-year-old will hope to cap a fine start to the season by making his senior debut as England complete their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign at home to Malta and away to North Macedonia this month having already booked their place at next summer’s tournament.

Recalling the days leading up to his big-money move, the forward said: “You know how good a manager Pep (Guardiola) is and he gave me the opportunity, so I’ll always be grateful to him.”

Written with inputs from AP/PTI