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Matan Hozez is a product of the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Department who returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv’s senior squad for the 2019/20 season after a six months loan-spell at Hapoel Haifa. Hozez, who spent the 2015/16 season on loan with second  division side Beitar Tel Aviv / Ramle, made his senior debut at Maccabi in a Toto Cup match against Maccabi Petah Tikva on July 31st 2016. The winger gained further experience whilst on loan with Hapoel Ashkelon, Bnei Yehuda and Hapoel Haifa  before returning to Maccabi ahead of the 2019/20 season.

Yossele Goldstein was introduced to football by his brother Haim (who lent his name to the team Maccabi “Haim”), who lost his life in the War of Independence. Yossele’s career at Maccabi Tel Aviv started at the team Maccabi “Matatahu”, a non-league team, followed in 1946-1947 by a stretch as a central striker at Maccabi “Avraham”. He was only 15 years old when he participated in his first training with Maccabi’s senior squad and in October 1949 he made his first official appearance in a 3-0 win in a derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

As time passed he began to impress in his role as a quick left-sided midfielder and captured a fixed spot on the club’s starting eleven in what would become to be known as Maccabi’s “Golden Age”. Goldstein was part of the brilliant attacking “quintet”, along with Yossele Merimovitch, Shaya Glazer, Eli Fuchs and Tzvi Studinsky, that led the Maccabi team of those days to so many titles and a whole host of incomparable memories. When Maccabi Israel went off to England in 1954, Goldstein stayed with teammate Merimovitch to play on the Jewish amateur side “Wingate” and they were both also selected to play in the national team of London.
In 1955 Golstein caused general bewilderment when he moved to the Johannesburg outfit “Rangers” in South Africa to become the first half-professional footballer in Israel. He stayed in South Africa until 1957, when he returned to Israel for another term at Maccabi Tel Aviv and in his first season back he was already celebrating a league and Cup double. The contribution of this talented left-sided winger was palpable throughout a whole season that ended without the club suffering even one loss. He continued to play for Maccabi until the end of the 1961/62 season, enjoying an impressive harvest of titles: four league championships (’49/’50, ’51/’52, ’53/’54, ’57/’58) and three prestigious State Cups (’53/’54, ’57/’58, ’58/’59).

Even when living outside of Israel he never abandoned Maccabi and never secluded himself. Throughout the years he coached many different football teams and finished his career at Maccabi in the years between 1987 and 1990 as coach of the children’s team “Moshe” and of two other youth teams. Goldstein made 25 appearances for his country and scored one goal in an international friendly against Poland.

photographs courtesy of the Israel Football Association archives

The Dutchman joined Maccabi in the summer of 2016, arriving from Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan.

After retiring in 1996 from a playing a career at Sparta Rotterdam and Helmond, Van Leeuwen began working at Feyenoord’s Youth Department as a coach of the Academy teams for 10 years during which he was also the Head Coach of the Feyenoord China projects as well as Head of Youth Scouting for the Feyenoord Academy.

Van Leeuwen spent seven years as Shaktar Donetsk Head of Youth Department before being appointed in March 2013 as Sports Director at Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan

Under Van Leeuwen’s guidance, Almaty finished in 3rd place twice, qualified to the Europa League once, finished in the runners-up spot last season and won the Kazakhstan Cup in the last two years.

The 31-year old Argentinean midfielder joined Maccabi at the beginning of the 2016/17 season on a free transfer from his previous club Kasimpasa of Turkey.

Scarione began his youth career at Boca Juniors and at the age of 19 he moved to Deportivo Cuenca in Ecuador where he won the domestic league championship. Following two seasons with the “Fighting Bull” the Argentinean began his European career signing with Swiss outfit FC Thun. Besides spending one season on loan with FC Lucerne, the midfielder recorded five years with the club where he saw the team to promotion in his final campaign with FC Thun. He then moved on to FC St. Gallen, also located in Switzerland.

St. Gallen was relegated and promoted during Scarione’s time with the club and he scored 15 goals helping his side go back up to the top division. In total, the Argentinean scored 42 goals in 88 appearances good enough to catch the eyes of many scouts which led him to his next stop in Turkey with Kasimpasa where he played under the tutelage of Shota Arveladze.

In his three years with the Apaches, Scarione scored 40 league goals in 94 matches before joining Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Ezequiel Oscar Scarione joined Maccabi Tel Aviv FC as the 31-year-old Argentine midfielder signed for the club on a free transfer from Turkish outfit Kasimpasa.

Scarione, who successfully underwent a medical today, began his playing career at Boca Juniors youth academy scored 40 league goals in 94 appearances for Kasimpasa where he spent the last three seasons.

In 2011 the attacking midfielder (179cm), moved to St Gallen and scored 42 league goals in 88 league appearances before switching to Turkey.

איזיקיאל אוסקר סקאריונה הצטרף למכבי תל אביב לאחר שהקשר הארגנטינאי בן ה-31 הצטרף בהעברה חופשית מקבוצת קאשימפאשה הטורקית.

סקאריונה, שעבר הבוקר בהצלחה בדיקות רפואיות, החל את קריירת המשחק שלו במחלקת הנוער של בוקה ג’וניורס, כבש 40 שערי ליגה ב-94 הופעות במדי קאשימפאשה בה שיחק בשלוש השנים האחרונות.

לאחר חמש שנים מוצלחות בפ.צ תון השוויצרית, הקשר ההתקפי המתנשא לגובה 179 ס”מ עבר ב-2011 לסט גאלן בה כבש 42 שערים ב-88 הופעות לפני שעבר לטורקיה.

The gifted midfielder began his career at Beitar Tubruk and made his senior team debut for Maccabi Haifa in 2008.

Following a number of championships and playing in the Champions League group stages with Haifa, Golasa signed with PAOK Salonika, a team with a very rich history in Greece.

In his first season with the team, Golasa made 24 appearances for the Greek outfit while starting in 14 games during a difficult period of time where also suffered from injuries. However, despite his performance on the pitch, Golasa was unable to score a goal or pick up an assist leading Croatian Head Coach Igor Tudor to ask the Israeli to begin the season with the reserve side.

Even though Golasa was disappointed, he began training with the reserve team in all seriousness, commitment and investing of himself to prove to his Croatian coach that he belonged with the first team. A little over a month later, Golasa was called up and returned the coach’s faith in him by helping defeat Panthrakikos 2:0 earning Tudor’s confidence.

After two seasons and 50 appearances with Salonika, Eyal Golasa came back to Israel to wear the Yellow & Blue. In 2016/17, his first in Yellow & Blue Golasa scored 2 goals and recorded one assist. One of the goals came at AZ Alkmaar during the Europa League Group Stages that helped Maccabi to an important win. Golasa went on to make 33 appearances across all competitions.

The 2017/18 season saw Golasa play a central role in helping the Club advance to the Europa League Group Stages, however, the midfielder suffered an injury in August that kept him off of the pitch for 3 months. Despite the time away, #23 made 32 appearances across all competitions (20 league) and assisted on four goals.

Filipenko began his youth career at Bate Borisov while also making his First Team debut with the club. After two successful seasons, the central defender signed with Spartak Moscow for three years and was loaned to Tom Tomsk and FC Sibir Novosibirsk where he also played in the Europa League. In 2011 Filipenko was loaned back to Bate Borisov where he won another championship.

Following his loan, Borisov reacquired the 1.96 meter defender and helped the Belarusian side to three more league titles. In his last campaign with the club, Filipenko was recognized as the best central defender in the league as well as being one of the top defenders. He signed with Malaga in 2015.

Filipenko made his senior international debut for the Belarus National Team in 2007 during Euro 2008 qualifying as a 19-year-old and has appeared 43 times for his country scoring one goal in a loss to France.

The 43-year old Georgian has arrived at Maccabi Tel Aviv and now’s the time to take a look back at his colorful career after having been one of his country’s greatest footballers. Arveladze started out at Dinamo Tbilisi where he played for four years making 69 appearances and scored 52 goals as he also captured four League and Cup titles over that time period.

After his successful stint in Georgia, Arveladze went to the Turkish League for four years and played with Trabzonspor winning one Cup during his time there. Holland and Ajax were next for the striker and he scored 37 goals in the 1997/98 Championship season. Following four years in the Eredivisie where he also took two Cups it was off to Scotland and Rangers for you guessed it, four more years. On the British Isle, Arveladze win two Championships before heading back to Holland and AZ where poured in 48 goals in 89 matches over the course of two seasons with the club.

The Georgian’s playing career was filled with many Championships and Cups and ended it off in Spain with Levante. However, immediately after his time on the pitch came to a close he returned to AZ Alkmaar and took up the assistant coaching position under Dutch legend Louis van Gaal followed by spells with Ronald Koeman and Dick Advocate until 2010.

From Holland, Arveladze moved to Turkey where he has served as a Head Coach for the past six years working at Kayserispor, Kasimpasa and Trabzonspor where he had starred as a player but left midway through this last season. In 2016/17 he will be wearing Yellow & Blue with his first challenge right around the corner as Europa League qualifying kicks off at the end of June.

The Georgian striker scored 291 goals in 410 matches during his 18 year playing career that also included 26 goals in 61 National Team appearances.