Joris van Overeem signs 3-year-deal at Maccabi

Joris van Overeem, (28) joined Maccabi Tel Aviv from Dutch side Utrecht as the midfielder who has an Israeli mother successfully underwent a medical before signing a contract until the end of the 2024/25 season.

Van Overeem, told Maccabi’s official website: “I am happy to arrive in Tel Aviv and join Maccabi – the biggest club in Israel. My ambition at Maccabi is to win as many titles as we possibly can. I am looking forward to play in front of Maccabi’s fans at Bloomfield stadium”.

Maccabi’s Head of Football Department, Barak Itzhaki added: “Joris is a versatile player who can play in various positions across the midfield. He gained vast experience in the top division in Holland as well as at international level in European competitions and the various young Dutch national teams. Van Overeem, was a key player at the clubs he played for, and we are certain that he will contribute to Maccabi in achieving all our goals”.

  • צילום באדיבות פ.צ אוטרכט

  • צילום באדיבות פ.צ אוטרכט

 

Van Overeem, a product of AZ Alkmaar’s Youth Academy, made 27 appearances in all competitions for Utrecht last season and a total of 116 since joining the club in 2018. Having made 32 international appearances for the Dutch young national sides at U-16 to U-21 levels, van Overeem made his senior debut at the age of 19 whilst playing for AZ under Dick Advocaat.

A one-season long loan spell at Dordrecht (2014/15) resulted with van Overeem making 35 appearances before returning to AZ. In the 2015/16 season van Overeem scored 7 goals in 46 appearances and played with AZ in the Europa League group stages. The following season van Overeem was part of AZ’s team that faced Maccabi in the EUROPA League group stages at the AFAS stadium as overall he scored a total of 13 goals in 117 appearances for Alkmaar.

Maccabi send 7 representatives to U19’s EURO

The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship finals gets underway at the weekend as Israel qualified to the tournament hosted by Slovakia between June 18th and July 1st. Seven Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Academy players were named in the Israel 20-man squad for the European U19 finals: Ilay Tomer, Shon Edri, Roy Revivo, Roy Nawi, Oscar Gloukh, Orel Baye, Dor Turgeman

Israel were drawn into Group B together with England, Serbia and Austria as matches begin on Sunday (June 19th) with Israel playing Serbia and England facing Austria.

Group A consists of Italy, Romania and hosts Slovakia as the fixtures continue until Saturday (June 25th) with the top two teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals three days later.

All four semi-finalists will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U20 World Cup in Indonesia, along with the winner of a play-off between the team sides finishing third in the two groups, filling UEFA’s five slots.

Group B:

Sunday June 19th : Serbia vs Israel (17:30, Žiar nad Hronom)

Wednesday June 22nd: Israel vs Austria (17:30, Žiar nad Hronom)

Saturday June 25th: Israel vs England (20:00, Žiar nad Hronom)

The groups

Group A: Slovakia (hosts), Romania, Italy, France

Group B: England, Israel, Serbia, Austria

Maccabi face Aachen and Westerlo in Holland

Maccabi Tel Aviv begin preparations ahead of the 2022/23 campaign as they report back to training on June 20th before departing to Holland for a pre-season training camp which will take place in Mierlo between June 27th and July 6th.

During the camp Maccabi will play three pre-season friendly matches with two of the opponents already determined – Alemannia Aachen (Germany) and KVC Westerlo (Belgium).

The first match on June 29th will see Ivic’s charges face German outfit Aachen that ended last season 12th in the fourth division.

On July 2nd Maccabi will face KVC Westerlo at the Het Kuipje stadium for a pre-season friendly that will be their first since winning promotion to the top Belgian division.

The opponent and date (July 5th/6th) of Maccabi’s third pre-season warm-up match will be determined and announced at a later stage.

A week after returning to Israel (July 14th) Maccabi will officially kickoff their 2022/23 campaign as they host Maccabi Netanya for a Toto Cup match at Bloomfield stadium.

IVIC APPOINTED AS MACCABI HEAD COACH

Vladan Ivic has been appointed as Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach after the 45-year-old Serbian signed a 2-year-deal.

Owner, Mitch Goldhar stated: “I look forward to working closely with Vladan again. I am confident that he and his staff will bring the focus and work ethic necessary to succeed ”.

Ivic, who led Maccabi Tel Aviv to win the championship in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons, told the club’s official website: “I am looking forward to the challenge and I am focused on working hard to achieve our targets”.

Ivic was appointed as Head Coach in the summer of 2018 and in his first season in charge (2018/19) guided Maccabi to the league title by a 31-point margin as well as the Toto Cup. Under Ivic’s stewardship Maccabi won the Championship for the second season in succession having won the Super Cup at the start of the 2019/20. In the summer of 2020 Ivic moved to England and was appointed as Watford manager a position he held before leaving in December that year.

Ivic’s coaching staff will see the return to Tel Aviv of Milos Veselinovic and Christos Kelpekis who were both part of the coaching staff during the previous tenure as they will be joined by two new additions in Sinisa Gogic as second assistant coach and Pavlos Gotsis as fitness coach.

International round-up: Jovanovic makes debut for Serbia

The close season is well underway as the various national team matches took center stage. As Maccabi has several international players we rounded up their performances over the weekend.

Israel’s national team began its’ UEFA Nations League campaign in Group B on Thursday with a home match against Iceland that ended in a 2-2 draw. Dan Glazer made a 74th minute substitute appearance and helped Alon Hazan’s side collect their first point. Israel now face two matches away from home – Albania (June 10th) and Iceland (June 13th).

On Sunday, Djordje Jovanovic made his full debut for Serbia as the 23-year-old striker played the first 45 minutes in the 4-1 victory over Slovenia in Belgrade. Ranked second together with Sweden behind Group H leaders Norway, Serbia face a tough trip to Solna on June 9th.

Brandley Kuwas played 90 minutes for Curacao against Honduras in the CONCACAF Nations League, but couldn’t prevent his side from suffering 1-0 defeat at the Ergilio Hato stadium in Willemstad.

Daniel Peretz and Oscar Gloukh were both in action and played 90 minutes as Israel Under 21’s suffered a 1-0 defeat in Latvia at the Skonto stadium in Riga that damaged their chances to qualify from Group B’. Guy Mizrahi and Ido Shahar who spent last season on loan also featured in the match while Nadav Niddam was an unused substitute. Currently ranked third with 16 points from 9 matches behind Poland (18) and Germany (24) Israel now host bottom of the group San Marinoat Petah Tikva on June 7th.

Novatos Miroshi, who spent last season on loan at Beitar Tel Aviv Bat Yam played 90 minutes in Tanzania’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Niger at the Stade de l’Amitie in Cotonou Benin. Tanzania return home and host Group F leaders Algeria on June 8th at the Benjamin Mkapa national stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Maccabi kicks off league campaign against Bnei Reineh

The Israel Professional Football League launched the 2022/23 ONE ZERO Digital Bank league campaign today (Tuesday) as it revealed the fixture list of the forthcoming season.

Maccabi will begin their first league match of the 2022/23 season at Bloomfield as they host newly promoted side Bnei Reineh on the weekend of August 20th. The 26th and final match day of the regular season is set to take place around March 11th before the Playoff begins. This season however, a significant change will see an imposed break between November to the middle of December while the World Cup Final is being played in Qatar.

Maccabi will officially begin its’ domestic season on July 14th as they host Maccabi Netanya in the Toto Cup with the winner guaranteed a place in the Semi Final.

ONE ZERO Digital Bank League fixtures: (Final dates and KO times TBC)

MD 1 August 20th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Bnei Reineh

MD 2 August 27th Hapoel Hadera vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 3 September 3rd Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Ironi Kiryat Shmona

MD 4 September 10th Ashdod SC vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 5 September 17th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Beitar Jerusalem

MD 6 October 1st Maccabi Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 7 October 8th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Hapoel Tel Aviv

MD 8 October 15th Bnei Sakhnin vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 9 October 22nd Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Maccabi Netanya

MD 10 October 29th Hapoel Be’ersheva vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 11 November 5th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Sektzia Nes Ziona

MD 12 November 8th Hapoel Jerusalem vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 13 November 12th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Hapoel Haifa

MD 14 December 17th Bnei Reineh vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 15 December 24th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Hapoel Hadera

MD 16 December 31st Ironi Kiryat Shmona vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 17 January 7th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Ashdod SC

MD 18 January 14th Beitar Jerusalem vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 19 January 21st Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Maccabi Haifa

MD 20 January 28th Hapoel Tel Aviv vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 21 February 4th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Bnei Sakhnin

MD 22 February 11th Maccabi Netanya vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 23 February 18th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Hapoel Be’ersheva

MD 24 February 25th Sektzia Nes Ziona vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

MD 25 March 4th Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Hapoel Jerusalem

MD 26 March 11th Hapoel Haifa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv

Playoffs:

MD 27 March 18th

MD 28 April 1st

MD 29 April 4th

MD 30 April 8th

MD 31 April 15th

MD 32 April 22nd

MD 33 April 29th

MD 34 May 6th

MD 35 May 13th

MD 36 May 20th

Exercising options in players contracts

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC exercised the option to extend the contracts of Eyal Golasa, Ofir Davidzada and Parfait Guiagon by one more season.

As a result, Golasa (30) and Davidzada (31) who joined the club in 2016 and 2017 will remain at Maccabi for their 7th and 6th respective year until the end of the 2022/23 season. Guiagon (21), who spent last season on loan at Maccabi Netanya, will also remain a Maccabi player until the end of the 2022/23 season.

Maccabi Tel Aviv FC also exercised options in the contracts of Or Yitzhak, Guy Mizrahi, Moflah Shalaata, Bar Cohen, Nadav Niddam, Shai Balahsan, Assaf Hershhko, Omer Yitzhak and Eyal Hen who will all remain Maccabi players until the end of the 2023/24 season.

Maccabi activate option on Ori Azu

Ori Azu secured his future at Maccabi Tel Aviv after the club exercised the option on the 16-year-old who joined the club’s U-17’s earlier this year. Since joining Maccabi, Azu scored 9 goals in 16 appearances for the U17‘s before being promoted to the U19’s where he added another goal in 3 appearances.A regular member of Israel’s young national teams (U15’s and U17’s) Azu made a total of 6 appearances scoring a single goal against Hungary in August 2021.Maccabi’s Youth Department Manager, Guy Zukerman, said: “Ori is a talented forward who played at Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Youth Academy five years ago. He returned to us in January as we believe he will continue his progress at the youth team as he has great potential to develop himself at the club in the future”.

PERICA VOTED KOPELL GROUP PLAYER OF THE SEASON

As the curtain came down on the 2021/22 season the time has come for summaries. Over the past few days we asked you to vote for your best player of the campaign and after a tight run you voted Stipe Perica as the KOPELL Group sponsored Player of the Season.

Perica recorded a good debut season at Maccabi which placed him in the second place of the League’s top goal-scorers chart. In addition, the 26-year-old Croatian striker entered the history books as his goal in the 4-1 victory over Alashkert was the first ever goal in the Conference League group stages.

Perica was facing tough competition from two other players – Daniel Peretz and Enric Saborit. The promising 21-year-old goalkeeper who didn’t miss a single minute and was ever present all season, turned in some impressive performances and reached second place in the fans’ survey. Enric Saborit was voted in the third place as the 30-year-old Spanish defender was solid this season both at left-back and in his new position at the heart of defence.