Maccabi Tel Aviv continued to remember one of Israel’s greatest players and all time legends in Yellow-and-Blue, Avi Cohen. This evening, the youth clubs gathered together by the memorial site named for Avi Cohen at the Kiryat Shalom Training Facility where Youth Department Director Nir Levin spoke about the great player of the past.

The youth department representative, Maxim Grechkin, read the sign located in the department that also features a picture of Avi. Levin also read the interview that was done with Ally McCoist, Cohen’s teammate at Rangers in Scotland and talked about his amazing Umbrella Derby goal.

Dorit and Tamir, Avi’s widow and son, were also present at the memorial. Dorit told the youngsters about Avi’s youth days with Maccabi Tel Aviv and spoke to them about who he was as a person. The last part of the memorial was conducted by Tamir who himself was once a player with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Yehuda Livni, the longtime veteran youth department coach who managed both Avi and Tamir and told stories about their time growing up at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

 Omri Ben Harush scored one of the five goals that the Yellow-and-Blue put past the Kiryat Shemona keeper this past Sunday night in a 5:0 win on Matchday 16 at Bloomfield Stadium. The defender not only discussed his goal, but also his relationship with outgoing head coach Slavisa Jokanovic and gaining confidence both on a personal level and for the team in general:

“It was good to get back on the winning track here at Bloomfield and the atmosphere that the fans created really helped us out. Of course scoring an early goal at Bloomfield is always good.”

Gaining confidence following the 5:0 win:

“Of course it’s helpful. When we win by such a big margin it gives us the opportunity to celebrate with the crowd and it’s great for our confidence. Hopefully this will continue.”

Having his goal upstaged due to the coach leaving:

“What can you do, that’s part of life. I scored and I hope that I’ll be able to continue scoring more goals.”

On his relationship with Jokanovic:

“Our relationship got off to a bit of a rocky start, but over the last while we became closer with more discussions and he began having more confidence in me. I learnt a lot from him and he really gave me a lot of confidence when I was going through a tough time. He showed me how to get back up when I was down.”

Following the big win over Kiryat Shemona, Maccabi Tel Aviv will play away at Hapoel Raanana on Matchday 17 of the WINNER League. The match will be the opening game of the 2016 year and will take place this coming Saturday January 2, 2016, 17:00 at the Netanya Stadium. Below is all the information you need to buy tickets. Maccabi fans will be sitting in sections 21-23-25. Tickets may be purchased through the Leaan Ticket Agency office, website or by calling *8780.

To purchase tickets through the Leaan Ticket Agency CLICK HERE

Ticket Price via telephone *8780/Internet: 60₪

Ticket Price at the Leaan Ticket Office, 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv: 55₪

Ticket Price on Matchday at the Stadium: 50₪ (should tickets remain)

*If tickets are ordered via the Internet please print them in advance

Ticket collection

Leaan Ticket Office 101 Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv: Sunday-Thursday 09:00-19:00, Friday 09:00-13:30

On Matchday, stadium ticket windows are open 3 hours prior to the match up until 45 minutes after its start

Photograph: rangers.co.uk

Today, December 29th marks five years since one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s greats, Avi Cohen passed away in a tragic accident. Ally McCoist, one of Scotland’s greatest players was Cohen’s teammate during their time together at Rangers and the former striker remembered Cohen fondly in an exclusive interview with the Official Website:

What comes into your mind when you hear the name Avi Cohen:

“The first thing I think of is his smile. He had the most wonderful smile. When he first came up to Rangers we had some real quality players and Avi had played with Liverpool. He had the ability to play with the best on the pitch and I can always

remember that he was a wonderful human being off of the pitch with a wonderful family. He used to throw his head back and laugh with a wonderful, wonderful smile that lit up the entire room. I’m so surprised it’s already been five years since he passed. We were all so very sad after the accident. I can’t believe it’s been five years.”

Blending in as a foreign player:

“He was a top football player and he had such a wonderful sense of humor. He really was great. At that time Rangers had Graeme Souness who was helping transform Scottish football but you could put Avi Cohen on par with any of the great players we signed. For me his greatest strength was that he was a terrific human being.”

Avi Cohen as a professional player:

“He was 100% committed and he was such a wonderful character. I can only remember seeing him get angry twice eand those times were on the football pitch. He was disappointed in the commitmnt shown by one or two of his teammates and he wanted to let them know it. That sums him up as well. It wasn’t in his character to be aggressive or angry but if someone needed a reminder or a message to be told that they weren’t doing enough or working hard enough, Avi would certainly tell them. All of a sudden there was a jump in the quality of the players we had been used to and we began to see international players like Woods and then Avi Cohen followed by Bonni Ginzburg. All of these guys were top quality when it came to playing professional football and doing their job.”

If there was one thing you could’ve said to Avi before he passed away what would it be:

“I’d thank him for lighting up the dressing room and lighting up the workplace. He was an absolute top, top human being and a pleasure to work with, I’d thank him for that.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Kiryat Shemona 5:0 on Matchday 16 of the WINNER League at Bloomfield Stadium with the help of four goals by captain Eran Zahavi. The match also marked Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic’s last game with the club. Veteran striker Barak Itzhaki spoke about the things he would take away from Jokanovic’s time with the club and the successes over the past six months:

“Little by little we began learning about what the coach expected from us and we also started understanding each other. As the weeks and months went by, there was more and more of a relationship that was being built. We’re happy we succeeded in advancing to the Champions League and also finishing atop the table after the first round of WINNER League matches.”

What did you take away from Jokanovic:

“You take away something different from each coach. Jokanovic gave us a lot of self confidence. We’re used to having a foreign training staff and the changes that come with that, be it in the middle of the year or at the start of the season. I think that it’s a big honor for Maccabi Tel Aviv to be able to have former coaches go to the top levels of the football world. It’s a great credit to the club as it continues to build the Maccabi name around the globe. We can’t complain about the fact that one of our managers went to the English Championship which is something very special. We wish him the best of luck.”

Having a strong veteran presence on the club:

“Javier, Jokanovic’s assistant already knows the system here and will stay with the club until a new staff comes in. We will give him 100% support and the fact that we have a lot of veterans on this team along with a very solid lockerroom will help the process immensely.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv held a practice session at the Kiryat Shalom training facility this morning after the 5:0 win over Kiryat Shemona at Bloomfield Stadium. The club also announced that the team’s head coach, Slavisa Jokanovic would be leaving immediately and would be joining Fulham FC of the Championship League in England.

Javier Perreira, one of Slavisa Jokanovic’s assistants, led this morning’s training session and will be with the club for the next ten days during the transition period between the two staffs. The players who took part in last evening’s match had a light practice that included running and stretching while the other players had a full practice session including games at the end.

Sports Director, Jordi Cruyff who attended today’s training session sent a message to all of the club’s fans concerning the upcoming period of transition: “It’s very important to me that the club’s supporters rely on management during this time. There are only three people who know exactly what is going on at the club and that includes the owner Mitch Goldhar, CEO Martin Bain and myself. Any rumors that are publicized is just pure speculation and our fans should ignore them. The professional staff will do what is necessary and will inform the public on the club’s Official Website when the time is appropriate.”

After scoring four goals in a 5:0 victory over Kiryat Shemona, the captain, Eran Zahavi celebrated the win and said goodbye to the coach Slavisa Jokanovic who is leaving the club:

“It’s never pleasant when you have to bid adieu to a coach in the middle of the season, but this was the decision that both the club and coach came to. As the player’s representative I want to say thank you to coach Jokanovic.

We did some great things together. We advanced to the Champions League and I want to wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors,” the captain said. “He made a decision that the club supported as they agreed together that it would be best for both sides, so I just want to wish him all the best.”

On how the club said goodbye to the coach:

“We all came together in the lockerroom following the match. The coach and Jordi came in and said that this was his last game with us. Over the last three years, Maccabi Tel Aviv has had a number of coaches and we’ve had to adapt to that change. I believe that the club is most important and nothing is bigger than the club itself. The players have to know and understand that they have to adapt to these types of things and I’m sure that this is what we will all do.”

Winning the match after the loss to Beer Sheva:

“I think that if you also look at the match we played away at Beer Sheva there were large swathes of time that we were the better side. In last week’s match all of the statistics were in our favor except for the final score. Today we showed a lot of character and proved that the loss to Beer Sheva had no effect on us and that it’s a very long season. Anyone who thought that we were going to easily give up our title were proved wrong today.”