Category: News

Jokanovic: “I am grateful to Maccabi”

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Head Coach Slavisa Jokanovic coached his last match with Maccabi Tel Aviv prior to departing for Fulham in the English Championship. He spoke about his decision to move back to London and discussed his future:

סלבישה יוקאנוביץ’ נפרד ממכבי ת”א

“I am grateful for both clubs, Maccabi and Fulham as well especially Maccabi who cared about my personal needs. I enjoyed my 6 months here in Tel Aviv. We qualified for the Champions League and we are halfway there for this season.332A0122

I apologize to the Maccabi supporters and I see that they are the most loyal fans, one of the most amazing I’ve seen in my football career. This made the games I played here at Bloomfield and on Europe great and I enjoyed the city of Tel Aviv. I want to thank all of the people here in Israel including the press and friends that I’ve made during my time.

There’s a very important job in London coming up with Fulham and I am looking for stability and I hope to be there a very long time.”

Jordi Cruyff, also commented on Slavisa Jokanovic’s departure:

“I think that for anyone in professional football England is the place to be and I have an understanding of why Slavisa would want to go back. Football is a small world and we never know when we will meet up again.

We were very reluctant to let him go but I can understand why and the magic of England and what it has to offer. We would have preferred to keep our coach but this is life.

Maccabi should be proud as we’ve had coaches that have left to the Champions of Mexico, Switzerland and also to Brighton and now Fulham.”

MACCABI AGREES WITH FULHAM ON JOKANOVIC RELEASE

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Maccabi Tel Aviv FC reached an agreement with Championship side Fulham to release coach Slavisa Jokanovic.

The West London club agreed a EUR 500,000 compensation fee for the services of the 47-year-old Serbian coach who stood down from his post after the match against Ironi Kiryat Shmona .332A2118

Sports Jordi Cruyff told the clubs’ official website: “It is hard to lose a coach of this calibre . Despite the relatively short period of time he spent here in Israel, Slavisa guided us to the Champions League group stage and will always be remembered fondly at Maccabi for that adventure. We wish Slavisa well in his new role as manager of Fulham FC”.

The club will appoint a replacement to take over from Jokanovic in next short while

Zahavi Scores Four in 5-0 Rout

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Head Coach Slavisa Joaknovic looked to get his club back on the winning track and started Dejan Radonjic up front with Captain Eran Zahavi by his right and Dor Micha a bit behind on the left. Nosa Igiebor, Nikola Mitrovic and Gal Alberman were the midfielders with a back four of Eli Dasa, Eitan Tibi, Carlos Garcia and Omri Ben Harush in front of keeper Predrag Rajkovic.

The first fifteen minutes of the match saw the two sides checking each other out with most of the action happening in the midfield. That was until Zahavi stripped the ball from Kiryat Shemona defender Din Maimoni in the 15th minute on the right side. The captain went in alone on keeper Mahdi Zuabi beating him from in close to take a 1:0 lead.332A9760-2

Five minutes later Dasa sent a terrific ball to Radonjic in the box but Zuabi was just able to keep the score as is. Radonjic, the Croatian striker was making his first start for the Yellow-and-Blue and provided a much needed spark of energy around the opposition’s goal allowing more freedom for Zahavi and company to operate from the flanks.

Maccabi would double the score in the 33rd minute when Zahavi headed in a beautiful pass by Micha giving the hosts a 2:0 lead. Both teams would trade chances late in the half and Mitrovic picked up a yellow card as the clubs headed into the break.

The second half began where the first left off with a ton of action. Micha sent Radonjic off the left side but his effort was saved by Zuabi’s foot in the 50th minute. Just a minute later Ahmed Abed had his point blank effort saved by Rajkovic as the match kept gong coast-to-coast. However, Kiryat Shemona began showing some quality off of the left side especially when Bruno Kunie stole the ball from Garcia but his effort went wide of the goal.332A9827-2

In order to correct the situation Jokanovic made a substitution in the 60th minute brining in Dor Peretz for Mitrovic and another change in the 65th minute taking off Radonjic to a round of applause for Barak Itzhaki. With fresh players on the pitch Maccabi began controlling the flow of play once again and in the 68th minute they would make Kiryat Shemona pay once again.

Captain Eran Zahavi completed his first hat-trick since May 17, 2014 when he turned the trick against Bnei Sakhnin in his final match of the season. This time he received a brilliant pass from Micha and cleanly beat Zuabi for his third of the game. And if that wasn’t enough for the Yellow-and-Blue Micha came flying in off of the right side and sent another fantastic pass to Zahavi in the box where he missed a bicycle kick, however Ben Harush was there to collect the ball and score from 16 meters out in the 71st minute.

But not to be outdone, Zahavi scored his fourth of the match in the 87th minute from the left side to finish off a dominant performance by the captain and superstar. The club will now get ready for this coming Saturday’s clash away at Hapoel Raanana.

Dasa: “I’m starving to win a title”

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There’s just a couple of days until Maccabi Tel Aviv will host Ironi Kiryat Shemona at Bloomfield Stadium on Matchday 16 of WINNER League action on Sunday. The club will continue its training throughout the weekend and Eli Dasa one of the club’s defensive backs had a chance to speak to the Official Website about the players situation over the last week, winning at Bloomfield and also his hunger to win the championship come May:

מסיבת העיתונאים לקראת קריית שמונה

“We’re not interested in the coaching saga. The management staff knows what he is doing. We as players come to practice every morning and work on our game. We watched the video of the Beer Sheva match and we learnt from our mistakes so that’s all behind us now as well.”

A bout  the loss to Beer Sheva:AQ7A6020

“Every match after a loss is critical. Kiryat Shemona has been a very strong side the past few years. Maccabi along with many other teams have had a hard time against them. We’ve been unable to defeat them twice so far this year. It’s not a crucial match and losses are part of the season. We can win all year, but it’s really not that realistic.”

Home matches this season:

“We lost three times so far at home this year and it’s not something that hasn’t happened to Maccabi over the past number of years. It’s important for us to make sure we have a true home field advantage. This is a very difficult match but one that can really help us reach our goals.”

The hunger for a championship:

“They brought in new players like myself because of our hunger. The management and professional staff was aware that they needed to bring in players who are hungry for titles. The players here are excellent and hungry but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re automatically going to win the championship. As one of the new players here I can tell you that I’m absolutely starving to win a title.”

Dasa: “I want to play an important part”

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This Saturday, Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv will play their Matchday 11 game at Hapoel Raanana in Toto League action. The young Yellow-and-Blue enter the match with not only a three game winning streak but they have also not given up any goals during this period.

One of Maccabi’s attacking players this season is Or Dasa, who had a chance to speak to the Official Website about the upcoming match, his personal goals and also the big jump the club made this year: “You can definitely say that this has been a huge transition from playing with the Under-17 side last year. Up until last season I had only played within the Maccabi youth leagues, I wasn’t part of the Israel National Team and all of a sudden here I am part of the National Team and of course playing in the youth league and also the Champions League Youth League.AQ7A1346

To play against your age group in Europe is something totally different and a much higher level. There’s differences on the physical side, speed and technical aspects of the game and everything is much faster. On top of that you also have pressure from the media. People watched us on TV and checked out all of the highlights. I try not to deal with any of this so it doesn’t really bother me as my sole focus is just football.”

Thoughts about this Saturday’s match and having won three in a row:

“Things are starting to come together for us. We said that once we finish playing in the Champions League, we will be a lot better. I’m happy that this is exactly what has happened and especially that we haven’t given up any goals.”

Personal goals for this season:

“Firstly, I want to continue to mature and also improve my leadership skills. Before I began this season I set a goal for myself to play as much as possible in the league. Then when we made it into Europe, I wanted to play as much as I could in Europe and I’m happy that I was able to do that. Right now I want to play an important part with the team where I can lead my teammates. I’m working a lot with Noam our psychologist and also a lot of the changes that are happening begin in practice. For example, when we have games in practice that we need to win, I try to encourage my teammates and score the winning goal.”

Summing up the winter National Team tournament:

“I was so proud. My mom saw the first match and she saw me sing Hatikva, there’s nothing better than that. The transition between the National Team and club side is a different world. I tried to get to impress the coach and I hope that he will call me up again. It’s an experience that I hope will continue into the future.”