199
Archives: Players
Eden Karzev
‘
Eylon Almog
Dor Micha
The 22 year-old Dor Micha came up through the ranks of the Maccabi youth system and was called up to play on the First Team during the 2010/11 season by head coach Moti Ivanir. In his first match he scored a goal and picked up an assist in a 3-0 victory over Hapoel Ramat Gan, a performance that earned him Man of the Match. He made a further seven league appearances for the senior team that season but also remained an integral part of the Maccabi Youth Team that won that season’s double, with Micha contributing four league goals and two more in State Cup competition.
Micha opened the 2011/12 season in spectacular fashion and quickly earned a place in Maccabi’s senior squad. In his second game of the year he scored a brace against Bnei Yehuda in the Toto (League) Cup, and in his first league appearance he scored once again in a 4-0 defeat of Ashdod FC. He played a pivotal role in Maccabi’s excellent start to the season and his quality and energetic performances continued in European competition where he scored a memorable goal in the 1:1 draw against Ukrainian giants FC Dynamo Kyiv in the Europa League.
The young midfielder continued his swift progress during the championship 2012/13 season and was selected for the squad throughout most of the year. With his speed, dribbling abilities and accurate crosses from the flanks, he was able to make a significant contribution to help the club win the league title. Micha’s key moments during the season were two goals in the derby against Hapoel Tel Aviv. He finished the season with five goals, four assists and his first league title as a senior squad player.
In 2013/14 Micha continued his development and string play as Maccabi won back to back championships. The midfielder scored 4 goals in all competitions and added 11assists to lead the club in that category while scoring in the away Bordeaux match in the Europa League Group Stages.
Micha was part of the 2014/15 Treble winning season playing in 48 matches, scoring five goals and assisting on 14 others as he played central role in belong the club to the historic year.
The 2015/16 year got off to a good start for Micha and Maccabi as the midfielder assisted on Eran Zahavi’s tying goal in a 2:2 away draw with Basel in Switzerland as the Yellow-and-Blue used that header to advance on aggregate to the Champions League Group Stages. He finished the season with 14 assists and 6 goals in 50 appearances across all competitions.
In 2016/17, his 7th with the First Team, Micha played in 53 official matches, assisted on 14 goals while scoring 7. Micha was an important part of the squad during the Europa League campaign and scored against Dundalk.
The 2017/18 campaign was the midfielder’s 8th season with the First Team and was integral part of the Club as he also served as Captain at various points throughout the year. After signing a contact extension, Micha made 28 league appearances, assisted on four goals and scored one marker as well. Across all competitions, #15 played in 42 matches and assisted on 7 goals.
Barak Itzhaki
Barak Itzhaki began his career in the youth system at Hapoel Ashkelon but moved to Beitar Jerusalem, where he was recognized as one of the top footballers in Israel at the time. In his first season, 2003/04, he scored three goals and added three assists. In his first term at Beitar he played for the club until 2007, scoring 23 goals in 109 appearances, winning his first career league title and becoming a symbol among the club’s supporters in the process.
In December 2007 Itzhaki added a European component to his resume, signing for Belgian first division side K.R.C. Genk, where he joined fellow Israeli striker Elyaniv Barda. After just half a season, during which he scored three goals, Itzhaki returned to Beitar where he continued to develop as a player and completed a second successful term at the club. In those two seasons he was the league’s top scorer (a title he shared with two other players), won the prestigious State Cup in the 2008/09 season and scored a total of 34 goals in 72 appearances before the club decided to sell him to Maccabi Tel Aviv after the 2009/10 season.
On Matchday One of the 2010/11 season, Itzhaki suffered a cruciate ligament knee injury. In 2011/12 he made 27 league appearances and scored nine goals. Itzhaki spent the 2012/13 season on loan at Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta FC., where he scored 13 goals in 23 appearances.
Itzhaki began his second term in a Maccabi kit at the start of the 2013/14 season in spectacular fashion, scoring one of the team’s two goals in their 0-2 away victory against Hungarian champions Gyori in Champions League qualifiers. Until his season-ending injury in the away leg of Maccabi’s Europa League round of 32 tie against FC Basel, Itzhaki scored eleven goals in all competitions, including his unforgettable overhead kick in Maccabi’s 3-1 home victory over Maccabi Haifa.
The colorful striker returned from injury in the 2014/15 season where he was part of the Treble winning team and is with the 2015/16 squad scoring an important home goal against Viktoria Plzen helping Maccabi during its quest to advance to the Champions League Group Stages. Over the course of the season he made 46 appearances and scored 6 goals while assisting on 4 others.
In 2016/17, Itzhaki appeared in the Europa League for the third time while also making 43 appearances and scoring 7 goals.
During the 2017/18 season Itzhaki made 25 appearances across all competitions scoring 6 goals while assisting on two others. Following the season Itzhak retired and took a position with the club’s professional staff.
As a member of the Israeli national team Itzhaki has made eleven appearances and scored one goal, in his maiden appearance in a 2-1 victory over FYR Macedonia in June of 2007.
Yoav Ziv
Yoav Ziv began his career in the Hapoel Givat Olga youth program, a team that emanates from a small neighborhood in the Israeli town of Hadera where he grew up. Ziv also enjoyed stints with the Maccabi Hadera and the Maccabi Haifa youth divisions, and started a senior squad match for the Haifa side that won the 2000/01 title. The following year Ziv stayed in Haifa but wore the red and black of Hapoel Haifa for the next two-and-a-half seasons.
Playing for Hapoel Upper Nazareth in the 2003/04 campaign, Ziv helped the modest club gain promotion to the second division and would end up starring the following year for the team while in the Leumit League. In 32 appearances with the club he would score 9 goals helping him earn a transfer to Beitar Jerusalem in the summer of 2005. He would spend four seasons with the Jerusalem side, playing a significant role in the club’s double season in the 2007/08 year.
The success Ziv had in the nation’s capital gave him the opportunity to ply his trade in Europe with Belgian first division team K.S.C. Lokeren, where he made 39 appearances and scored three goals. He has also earned 32 caps for the Israel national team, making his first appearance on August 15th 2006 in an away match against Slovenia.
Ziv joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in the summer of 2010 after returning from Belgium. His Yellow-and-Blue career got off to a spectacular start as he scored in his first official appearance with the club against Europa League qualifying opponent FK Mogren of Montenegro. Now focusing on his new role as a left back he quickly cemented his place in the starting eleven and would make 45 appearances in all competitions during his first season with the club.
In his second year with the club, Ziv would make 41 appearances in all competitions, including the group stages of the Europa League where Maccabi would be playing for the first time. His two goals and four assists in 33 league matches the following year were an important contribution to the team’s efforts while winning the 2012/13 championship, the club’s first league title in a decade.
The 2013/14 season would see Ziv and Maccabi have a very successful European campaign as the club advanced to the Europa League Round of 32 with the left back playing 27 games, scoring one goal and picking up one assist helping the club win another domestic title.
During the Treble year of 2014/15 Ziv would make 29 appearances for the club while scoring the second goal in the Israel State Cup 6:2 win over Hapoel Beer Sheva. This season the veteran defender will begin another year with Maccabi
Gal Alberman
Gal Alberman joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in the summer of 2010 from German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach during a major investment in the transfer market that looked to strengthen the defensive prowess of the club’s midfield. The 31 year-old Alberman came up through the ranks of the youth system at Maccabi Petah Tikva and in the 2000/01 season joined the senior squad, where he remained for five consecutive seasons and was among the players most identified with the club in the first half of the “noughties”. Those were relatively good years for Maccabi Petah Tikva, who advanced to the finals of the coveted State Cup in 2001 and won the Toto (League) Cup in 2004.
Yuval Shpungin
Defender Yuval Shpungin came up through the Maccabi Tel Aviv youth system and was earmarked as the future right back for the club and for the Israel National team. Shpungin joined the first team in the 2005/06 season when Maccabi Head Coach Nir Klinger called him up to the squad. After spending most of the first season on the bench, he established himself as the team’s starting right back for the next four years, scoring one league goal in the 2006/07 season against Hakoach Amidar Ramat Gan in a 2:0 victory. Shpungin also played a pivotal role in Maccabi Tel Aviv’s winning of the “Toto” (League) Cup in the 2008/09 season.
In 2009/10, Shpungin left the club to join Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia where he would spend three seasons and win the Cyprus State Cup on two occasions. In the 2013/14 campaign, Shpungin left Nicosia to join Belgian outfit Mons and played alongside Israeli Shlomi Arbeitman. After one season at Mons, Maccabi gave Shpungin the opportunity to return for a second term with the club as he signed a three-year deal to come back to his footballing roots.
Shpungin participated in 10 matches during the 2014/15 Treble winning season while playing a central role in the club’s 6:2 Israel State Cup win over Hapoel Beer Sheva. After beginning the 2015/16 season with the club, Shpungin assisted on Eran Zahavi’s game winning goal against Viktoria Plzen lifting Maccabi into the Champions League playoff round and helped the club edge out Basel to advance to the Group Stages. He made 22 appearances during the campaign.
In 2016/17 Shpungin played in 10 matches for the club and in the following season, 2017/18 the defender made 35 appearances and played in the Europa League group stages for the second straight campaign. The veteran won the Toto Cup and at the end of the season, his contract was not renewed as he left Maccabi.
The talented defender has also played for various Israeli national teams, starting with the youth sides and progressing to the senior squad, where he has made 27 appearances.
Carlos Garcia
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Spanish defender Carlos García Badías, who at the start of his career trained with the senior squad of the Spanish side RCD Espanyol under managers Javier Clemente and Luis Fernández, made his maiden senior team appearance in October 2003 against Real Madrid and played in a further two matches before being sent out on loan to third tier outfit Polideportivo Ejido, where he made 32 appearances and scored one goal.
In the summer of 2005 he was signed by manager Paco Flores of UD Almería, then playing in the Spanish second division, and with the exception of one year on loan at Real Betis this successful partnership continued through the 2011/12 season. Almería meanwhile was promoted to La Liga for the 2007/8 season and spent four years in Spain’s first division before being relegated once again at the end of the 2010/11 season. In their relegation year Almería reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey before being beaten 8-0 on aggregate by Barcelona, who then went on to lose to Real Madrid in a well-publicised final. Garcia has represented his native Spain in all their young international sides and reached the finals of the World Under-20 championships held in the United Emirates in 2003.
Playing for the first time outside his native Spain, Garcia settled in quickly at Maccabi Tel Aviv at the beginning of the championship 2012/13 season and before long had established his place not only in the starting eleven but also in the hearts of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans everywhere. Together with fellow defender Eytan Tibi, the powerful and steadfast Garcia was a rock of stability in Maccabi’s central defence and his 29 appearances helped the team in conceding the least number of goals of any club in the Israeli Premier League during the entire season. A championship season that was not only the first for the club in a decade but also the first in the Spaniard’s long career.
Tal Ben Haim
Tal Ben Haim was born in 1982 and grew up in the Maccabi Tel Aviv youth system joining the club as a six year-old. The central defender was an integral part of the 2001/02 Israel State Cup winning side as well as the 2002/03 Israeli League Championship team. In 2004 he began his European career with English side Bolton Wanderers where he would go on to make 88 appearances while scoring one goal. After three years with the club he moved to Chelsea for a season and then played for a number of English teams including Manchester City, Sunderland, Portsmouth, West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers and Charlton Athletic. He would also have a short spell in Belgium where he played for Standard Liege.
On June 3, 2015 Ben Haim signed a two year contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv and returned to his roots helping the club advance to the group stages of the Champions League. He played a key defensive role in overcoming FC Basel, Viktoria Plzen and Hibernians FC to ensure the Yellow-and-Blue’s participation in the premier European club competition. The central defender made 29 appearances across all competitions.
In 2016/17, his second season since returning, Ben Haim made 48 appearances with five coming in the Europa League Group Stages.
The following campaign, 2017/18, the central defender helped the club advance to the Europa League Group Stages and was part of a rotation that included Eitan Tibi and Jean Sylvan Babin. Ben Haim scored a goal against Hapoel Raanana in the Toto Cup and made 35 appearances across all competitions including 19 in the league. His contract ended at the conclusion of the season.







