Midfielder Avi Nimni is one of the greatest stars in Maccabi Tel Aviv's history and the club's all-time highest goal scorers with 194 league goals. Nimni came up through the ranks of the Maccabi youth system and made his maiden appearance for the senior team aged 18 in the penultimate match of the 1989/90 season against Hapoel Kfar Saba. In the following season he began to display his talent, scoring ten goals in all competitions and establishing himself in the starting eleven. From this point on this young talent and his exceptional footballing abilities continued to develop, as his career as someone whom many would come to see as a symbol of club began to skyrocket.
Possessed of a deadly left foot, Nimni already scored his first hat-trick at the age of 19 in a 3-3 draw against Hapoel Petah Tikva in October 1991 in a championship season in which he displayed his full potential. He finished the season with 15 league goals and his first league title. This was a fitting start to what would be a very successful decade for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Avi Nimni was an important piece in the puzzle of one of the most outstanding generations of footballers in Maccabi's history. And Avi Nimni would be fishing balls out of opponent's nets at double-figure rates every season for his first seven years with the club.
The dominance of Nimni's number 8 expressed itself in the titles the club captured in the first half of the 1990's. Whenever the club needed an important goal, Nimni was at the ready, peaking in the double season of 1995/96. He scored the goal that sealed the victory in the match of the season against Maccabi Haifa, a goal in the State Cup final and the only goal in the championship match against Beitar Jerusalem. He survived an entire generation of Maccabi Tel Aviv players, watching them leave or retire while he carried on playing in a career that was only interrupted by short stints in Europe.
First in the 1997/98 season he joined one of Spain's largest clubs, Atletico Madrid, but appeared in just seven games before returning to Maccabi. Two years later his second European destination was the English Premier League side Derby County, where he scored one goal. In between he managed to win the Toto (League) Cup with Maccabi and after returning from England enjoyed his most successful season in 2000/01, scoring the 25 league goals that set him atop the league goalscoring table and adding one more in the 3-0 Maccabi victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva in the State Cup final.
After winning one more State Cup, Nimni experienced ups and downs during the championship 2002/03 season, dividing his time between the starting eleven and the bench. But he returned to form just at the right time, scoring six goals in the last three games of the season to help Maccabi Tel Aviv catch up with Maccabi Haifa in the race for the title, which Maccabi Tel Aviv ultimately won on goal difference. At the end of that season Nimni joined Beitar Jerusalem , where he spent two seasons before returning to Maccabi Tel Aviv for yet another term of three seasons.
At the end of the 2007/08 season, Avi Nimni finally hung up his boots, ending an illustrious career as one of the greatest stars the club has ever known and the club's all-time highest goal scorer at 194. That leaves him only behind Alon Mizrachi at 207 and just two goals short of Oded Machnes as the Israel Premier League's third highest goal scorers of all times. It also puts him ahead of Maccabi's second greatest goal scorer, the legendary Shaya Glazer, who managed 130 goals in his illustrious career. His list of titles is equally impressive: four championships ('91/'92, '94/'95, '95/'96 and '02/'03), four State Cups ('93/'94, '95/'96, '00/'01 and '01/'02) and two Toto (League) Cups. He also enjoyed a long and successful career with the Israeli national team, making 80 appearances and scoring 17 goals.
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