In an article in the series "My First Time", appearing in the match programme for Maccabi Tel Aviv's encounter with Hapoel Ramat Gan, team coach Oscar Garcia describes his first football experiences
"The first football match I saw on television was Barcelona vs. Valencia. I was a child and I don’t remember too much. It's a remarkable coincidence that I ended up playing for both teams – Barcelona between the age of 9 and 26 and Valencia for one season", says MTA head coach Oscar Garcia in an article that will appear in the Maccabi Tel Aviv – HaPoel Ramat Gan match programme. The second programme for the 2012/13 season will provide, among other things, a glance into the coach's first experiences after years in the Spanish football world. "As a player, I hold the record for appearances and goals with the Spanish Under-21 national team, with 27 appearances and 15 goals. I played with Fernando Morientes, the forward who played for Real Madrid, Liverpool and Monaco, and also Santiago Denia, who currently coaches Spain's Under-17 team and who was a defender at Atletico Madrid".
Garcia, who was promoted to Barcelona's senior team aged 18 by the then team manager, the legendary Johan Cruyff (MTA sports director Jordi's father), talks about his impressions of the man who was instrumental in developing the "total football" of the Dutch national team in the 1970's that gave rise to the now famous "Tiki Taka" style at Barcelona: "He is a coach who was about a decade ahead of his time in terms of his vision. I was the only player my age to join the senior team and I met players like Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov, Pep Guardiola and Andoni Zubizarreta. In my first season on the senior team (1992/3), we won the Spanish championship and after that I won three more championships with the club".
You can read the full article in the match programme that will be distributed, free of charge, at the entrance to the "Moshava Stadium, along with other articles about striker Robert Earnshaw and defender Steve Gohouri, who arrived to Maccabi from the English Premier League, a review of the Under-19 games and an introductory article about HaPoel Ramat Gan. And make sure to look for the voucher attached to the programme, which could be your chance to win a free season ticket for the 2013/14 season.
