Israel captain Yossi Benayoun signed a new five-year contract with West Ham on Friday that will keep him at the club until 2012. The deal is worth some 55,000 pounds a week and makes the 27-year-old midfielder the highest paid Israeli player of all time.

"I'm very pleased to have agreed on this new deal," Benayoun said. "From the first moment I arrived at West Ham, the club felt like home to me."

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The natural thing for me was to sign a new deal and I'm very happy because I want to stay at this club. I'm sure we'll have a better season next season because we have players with a lot of quality," he said.

"We will also have new players coming in to make us stronger and better. I'm very pleased because it is the best place for me. The chairman is very ambitious and I want to thank him because the negotiations were very quick.

"He and the manager showed me they wanted me to stay immediately. Hopefully I will pay them back on the pitch and I will do everything in my power to match their ambition." West Ham Chairman Eggert Magnusson said Benayoun was "a big part" of the club's future.

"We are looking forward to bringing in exciting new signings but we must also make sure we keep hold of the hugely talented players we already have," Magnusson said.

West Ham escaped relegation on the final day of the season.