Saying goodbye with just a look without saying a word • Maccabi Haifa

Maccabi Haifa football club says goodbye to its symbols. Maccabi of 2020-21 will look different from the one we knew

If in recent years it was possible to find quite a few former players and domestic players in senior positions in the club, then in the near future the club is going to change shifts and change officials while releasing former players and domestic players, whose value for the club is particularly great.

The incumbents who are leaving and/or candidates to leave are: 

Appears: Rafi Osamo - the team manager, a candidate to leave

In June 2016, as part of the organizational change in the club, Rafi Osamo was appointed the new team manager. The 57-year-old Osamu won three championships with Maccabi Haifa, including the first championship in 1983/84 and the double in 1990/91. He started playing at the age of 9 at the Maccabi Haifa football school, passed all the divisions and advanced to the senior team. In addition, he appeared five times in the Israeli national team. Osamu was forced to retire from active play at the age of 29 due to injury. He coached for four years in the youth department of Maccabi Haifa.

Looks like: Alon Harazi - will finish his role as a scout

One of the flagship players of Maccabi Haifa in the nineties. He came from the Ramat Gan team where he played as a striker. The coach of Maccabi Haifa, Shlomo Sharaf, transferred him to "Kalboynik" and already in his first season (1990/1991) he played in every possible role on the field. Harazi was one of the very famous defensive squad, which included young players like him - Reuven Atar, Eyal Berkowitz and Tal Benin, and all of them pushed the team to its historic "double".

Looks like: Giora Antman - will end his position as goalkeeper coach

Antman played for quite a few teams in the Premier League, and even started his career at Hapoel Haifa, but his name will always come up in the context of Maccabi Haifa.

Upon his retirement, Antman went through a soccer coaching course, and began serving as a goalkeeper coach at Maccabi Haifa. Among the goalkeepers who trained under him: Nir Davidovich, Tom Elmedon, Dodo Avatt and Avi Peretz. In 2012, he was appointed by Eli Gutman as the goalkeeping coach of the Israeli national team in place of Alexander Obarov, and towards the 2012/2013 season he left Maccabi Haifa, and moved to serve as the goalkeeping coach of Hapoel Beer Sheva. After one season in Beer Sheva, Antman returned to Maccabi Haifa in May 2013.

In June 2017, he finished his position at the club, and in September he joined the coaching staff of Carla Blasters led by Rene Malenstein. In January 2018, he returned to his position at Maccabi Haifa.

Looks like: Nir Davidovich - will finish his job as goalkeeper coach  

Goalkeeper for Maccabi Haifa and the Israeli national team and serves as goalkeeper coach for Maccabi Haifa. Considered one of the top Israeli goalkeepers of his generation and one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of Maccabi Haifa.
Davidovich is the most decorated goalkeeper in Israel and has 12 team titles and a football title this season. He won all of them with Maccabi Haifa.
During his long career, Davidovich suffered a large number of serious injuries, as a result of which he was sidelined for long periods, and even underwent about 13 surgeries.

Davidovich is associated with the Maccabi Haifa football club, where he played in his youth and during his adult career. He won many championships in his team and also participated with it in the group stage of the Champions League.
He appeared in 51 games in the Israel national team uniform.

Marko Belbul - head coach

Balbol began his career in the youth department of Maccabi Haifa, and in his first years in the club's senior team, he rarely played. He made his big breakthrough in the 1987/1988 season, under the guidance of coach Dror Kashtan, and was then chosen as the season's discovery. In the following season, he was already a regular team player. The 1990/1991 season, in which Maccabi Haifa won the double, he missed almost entirely due to injury.

Confusion was a partner in Haifa's historic championship in the 1993/1994 season, in which it won the championship without a league loss and broke many records. In this season he played as a right defender alongside a defense squad that included Alon Harazi, Eitan Aharoni, Roman Petz, Eric Bando and Moshe Glam.

On December 28, 2014, Belbul was appointed the head coach at Maccabi Haifa, after the dismissal of Alexander Stanoyevich. At the end of the season, the team finished in fifth place in the league, and Belbul ended his role. In July 2016, Belbul was appointed coach of Israel's youth soccer team, with which he failed to qualify for the Euro 2019 tournament. In December 2018, he was appointed coach of Maccabi Haifa for the second time. Under his guidance, there was a transformation in the team, both in results and ability, and the team qualified for the playoffs from second place.

In the 2019/2020 season, Maccabi Haifa finished as runner-up in second place in the league. On July 8, 2020, Belbul left Maccabi Haifa after a season and a half, after his contract expired and the team chose not to continue with him.

In the season that just ended, Maccabi Haifa finished in second place, after an outstanding season, compared to the previous nine seasons. The team mentioned in the article here has a large part in the team's success, both on and off the field.

It is not really clear why Maccabi Haifa decided not to renew the agreement with the coach who brought it so high in recent years. It is not clear why the club decided to get rid of, apparently, the entire professional staff, most of which consists of former players who have a name in Maccabi Haifa.

Marco Balbol, the coach, did not receive a message about continuing the engagement. Giora Antman, Rafi Osamo and Alon Harazi heard about the non-continuation of their employment through the various media channels. Nir Dudovitz, the most decorated goalkeeper in the club, will divide his time and continue his career as a goalkeeper coach in Hapoel Ra'anana, probably also for financial reasons.

The newly appointed coach, Barak Becher, will bring his team with him, which is accepted all over the world. But the question arises, why did they decide to give up the entire team at once and not gradually? Who assures Maccabi Haifa that Barak Becher will succeed and that his team will do the job? What will happen, for example, if Barak is forced to leave? In light of what has been happening at Maccabi Haifa in the last decade, this is not an unreasonable scenario. In that case, his team will go with him and Maccabi Haifa will be left without professionals in senior and necessary positions.

They do stay (it seems)

The fitness trainer, Dr. Niall Clark and assistant trainer Paul Groves, apparently remain in the system, it is not clear what the motives are for them to stay, perhaps after all Maccabi is preparing a backup team in case of Bacher and his team leaving?

The former players are shocked

In the conversations I had with some of the officials mentioned here, difficult things were said, such as it was, I am not exaggerating when I say - it is very difficult to hear, here are some of them:
"We heard about our non-employment from the media"
"Apparently someone at Maccabi Haifa is bothered by the presence of former players in the club"
"It is impossible that they will dwarf what we did this season and not appreciate"
"It is true that if the food comes the appetite, but finally there is a process"

Eyal Berkowitz

Another former player, one of the top players in Israel and the one most associated with Maccabi Haifa.
Berkovich: "Maccabi Haifa has no heart, that's why they don't succeed."

History

It should be noted that Maccabi Haifa has quite a history of 'not pretty' farewells, to say the least, from past players, such as Eyal Berkowitz, Yaniv Katan, Yossi Benyon, Eric Benado (as coach), Reuven Atar as well as the names mentioned earlier.