Very local football • Niv Albert from Haifa dreams far away

Carmel Sports Club

In the first game ever of the Carmel Sports Club, the team played against Maccabi Isfaia. It ended 14-0, to their detriment. But the result does not interest Niv Albert, the owner/CEO of the club, who talks about football as an educational tool, about a club that thinks long term and about the dreams of raising and selling Haifa players to Europe

Neve Yosef, Beitar Haifa, Hapoel "Rubi", Haifa Youth and more - the city is full of small football associations. What made you stand up and open another association?

"It comes from a place of crazy passion, we've worked in other clubs and seen the conduct - people pay a lot of money and get 8 balls for training, when there are 30 children in training, they get a quarter of a field with synthetic grass in Ethos, which is a very small place, unworthy fields, in the end the children are seen".

It's hard to miss Niv's love for the game and the pain when he talks about the sickening evils of local football. "We decided that with this money you can develop and do much more. Our goal is, in the end, to take children, raise them the way we think. We have 3 clubs to emulate - the training method of Ajax, Dortmund and Espanyol." In the meantime, on a grass field, MS Carmel's goalkeeper takes the first ball out of the net. Niv is not excited "it's part of the way, part of the process".

"Sending a long hand into a shallow pocket"

What is the biggest difficulty in opening a sports association in Haifa?
"I will surprise and not say the number of groups nor the number of children, because there is enough for everyone. The only difficult thing is that there is no support. We have no sponsor, no donor. All you see here is money that we brought from home." And there is a lot to bring - from the captain's tape through playing and training uniforms, pitch rental to the medic and the security guard who need to be present at the game. While the Haifa municipality helps other associations both financially and in terms of pitch, MS Carmel does not receive a shekel. "It makes it very difficult to open the club at all, before the time of Klish, there was a person who signed without seeing the opening of clubs. Today, Nir Shaul (head of the sports department in the municipality) makes order and does not allow easily."

How many children play in the association?
"In total, including the graduates, 200 players are registered." A small association that opened in May last year and this is its first year in the league. "Ultimately, the goal is to bring as many players as possible, including the children who were not accepted into the big clubs, but these are children who dream of football, who want to improve, even if they don't have the money or no one to bring them to training. We take care of them here to the fullest extent, So it's true it's more subsidies and if before the corona virus we fully subsidized 10 children, now it's already 25 children. They don't pay the club because they can't and we take care of everything for them." Not obvious. "We will not blow up a child's dream because of money. We will work until 2 in the morning and rent the lots and do what is necessary so that every child gets what he deserves." So against Isfaia it is already 3:0, but you can already understand, the big picture is more important than another result.

"We started with the children of the 2011 and 2012 yearbooks together and we had 3 children at the beginning, 3 training sessions a week for 3 children. At the beginning, Alex (the professional director at the association) and I worked without pay. We did not give up, we kept pushing. Today the team stands at 25 players and another group of 20 players who train at a soccer school - a total of around 50 children in this yearbook."

"You don't change a team until you build one"

How did you get into the world of football?
29 years old, married to Netta and a new father to Omari. Haifa all my life. I grew up as a fan of Hapoel Haifa, but now I am a fan of MS Carmel. "You don't change a team until you build one." He grew up at home with a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a friend of Egged, who taught him hard work but also socialist thinking. Moved through all the city's teams - played in Beitar Haifa until he was a teenager, coached in Neve Yosef and reached the board of directors of Hapoel "Rubi". my little god To build something I believe in, to follow my own path without any distractions. Here, the best interests of the player and the club come before everything." The values ​​he brings with him from home trickle down to all the club's players. "There is no player in the club who receives a salary, but they receive the best conditions - 3 training sessions a week, head coach, assistant coach, fitness coach , goalkeeper coach, gym, but no salary. The entire budget goes to the development of the children."

You cannot make a living from football alone. In the mornings he works as a physical education teacher in one of the schools in the city. "Sport in Israel is not considered, put it in the right place from the government's point of view, sports and culture - two things that are not interesting, it does not bring in money. What is developing the mind? The body? The body is only interesting in the army, be as strong as you can and then, It doesn't interest anyone." In the school where he works, there is only one hour (45 minutes) a week of physical education. "Today, as physical education teachers, we learn how to get a child to be active in his free time. I can prepare a page for them with instructions on what to do at home, follow them in one or another application, each teacher does it for himself. There is no support system, no one to outline the way. The school itself has no budget, no equipment, the sponge ball is divided in half - some play with this half and some with the other half."

Sounds frustrating. Almost like the score that currently stands at 8-0. Niv is not moved by this, he thinks far away. 10 years from now, where do you see the club?
"The goal is for our good youth players to sell abroad, we will be able to see them flourish. We currently have a 7-year-old player, year 2013, playing with 10-year-olds and he is a great potential. But he doesn't get the conditions of a star here, we keep him humble and explain to him that he needs to work hard." It's hard to get big dreams out of him, he's immersed in the present, in reality. Getting the most out of each of his domestic players.

"We opened the club when we were young, I'm 28 years old, Alex is 27 - the thinking is really long-term. In 10 years, my job will be to make sure that this club continues to operate and work at the highest level. As soon as there is a sponsor and financial backing, we can achieve bigger things." .

Good luck Niv, we will continue to follow. A final word about the city?
"I love Haifa, it's my home, my place. Where else do you have a mountain that overlooks the sea? On the way to work, no matter how tired you are or not, you see the sea and you've started the day right. Regarding football - I've been playing manager since I was little R (computer game for football training), now I play in real life."