Always in Beitar. Miora Yehezkel at the cliff shore/courtesy of the photographer
One of the names most associated with Beitar Tel Aviv as a player and manager is Meir "Miora" Yehezkel, who defines himself as the last of the nostalgic Beitar Tel Aviv people.
From the height of his 65 years, he follows the team, which is deeply immersed in the bottom of the second league, with no trace of the top club of the past.
"My heart and soul are burning, the beloved and special Beitar Tel Aviv is today in the abyss, the bottom of the bottom in League B, Southern District A, on the safe way to League C.
The team in which Itzik Shneor, Lunia Devorin, Nissim Elmaleh and other legends played in the beginning is disappearing.
Says that the great men who marched the team in the top league - Aryeh Kramer, Mickey Mandelblit and Yigal Greifel - are turning in their graves.
How does the group that was identified with the freedom movement, get swallowed up and disappear in such a sad sunset?
Two giants we trained.
Marimovitch and Stelmach/courtesy of the family, reproduction - Barney Ardov
Miura was born in Israel on 4/19/1958.
"Father Haim and mother Naomi immigrated to Israel in the mid-1950s, first to Afula and from there to the Ha-Tikva neighborhood. We are three brothers, I am the eldest. Father had a job at the Carmel market in Asta selling fruit. I am married with a son, two daughters and five grandchildren, have lived in Ramat Aviv for 40 years, and work for the municipality of Tel Aviv in the Beaches Division, manager of the cliff beach. This year I am scheduled to retire after 44 years of work."
So you are actually a man of Bnei Yehuda?
"As a child and teenager, Bnei Yehuda was the revered soccer team for me. I especially loved Zadok Mager, the magician with the ball. Many claim that Mager's control of the ball was like Rony Calderon's. Ehud Ben Tovim was of course the king I adored."
How did football start for you?
"We had the Hatikva club in the neighborhood where we played footy. The director and manager was the famous fitness man Yitzhak Kamri. This youth center won four times in a row in the championships for youth clubs that were held every year in the exhibition grounds. I won the title of the most outstanding player of the championship three times. I will not forget the final game The State Cup in Bloomfield, Bnei Yehuda beat Hapoel Petah Tikva 0:1 with a winning goal by Shmuel Nachmias. As a child, I was swept up in the happy commotion, the neighborhood was shut down for the victory celebrations. This led me to the Bnei Yehuda children's team, I was a very talented player, but in the neighborhood they did not renew I have the player's card, without explanation. I was close to walking from the neighborhood to the training ground of Beitar Tel Aviv, which was adjacent to Abu Kabir."
Not for nothing does he mention the famous detention center. "During the youth training and when I went to train with the seniors by Yosla Marimovich, Some of the prisoners from the prison windows recognized and recognized me, they called my name and encouraged me."
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Spiegel in Beitar Tel Aviv uniform/official website, Oded Milstein
Beitar Tel Aviv had a strong youth team at the top
. Two games in Bloomfield, and sometimes three.
The opening round of the season brought together Beitar Tel Aviv against Maccabi Jaffa in a game at 12:00. In the first half, Kish Romano gave me an excellent ball and against the goalkeeper Herzl Cavillo I scored the first one on the way to an excellent victory 0:4. Mark my goal as the one that opened the season ".
Here he wants to go back and recreate the days as a youth player.
"I was invited by Emanuel Shafer to the youth team, which included, among others, Gili Landau, Avi Kaufman, Yehuda Katsav, Avraham Levy and others.
In one of the training sessions, horn balls were raised to me, I would close my eyes and hit.
Shafer saw this, and said 'You don't strike with your eyes closed, you strike with eternity.
He aimed for the forehead and ordered it to be raised at me 50 more times."
Since then, he has often settled in Cafe Lanchaner: "A cafe on Shinkin Street, the beating heart of Beitar Tel Aviv fans and managers, where things were arranged. I also spent many hours at the famous Ze'ev Citadel ".
The freedom movement and Menachem Begin didn't help you?
"No politician helped Bitar under any circumstances, Begin did not interfere in anything.
They helped Beitar Jerusalem, Beitar Tel Aviv alive and well only because of the huge love of Greifel, Mandelblit and Kramer."
Motella Spiegler as a player-coach in the 1981-2 season at Beitar Tel Aviv/Reuven Castro, Ma'ariv
He loved Nahum Stelmech as a coach ("Stelmech's whole life was the infinite love for football, an intelligent person, he coached with love and with heart and soul, a legend according to everyone"), but he remembers a famous statement from Nisim Bacher: "The great Nisimiko arrived, turned to me And he said that he is told that I am from the Millian of Tel Aviv, but 'Where is Uri and where are you?' We meet and remind him of his statement ever since."
He also has memories of Josela Marimovic.
"A golden man, he brought Liverpool to Israel. We had a close match against Dalglish, Sons, Phil Thompson and others. It was exciting to play against them and in the evening to go to Marimovitch's house, who did the fire like a king."
The contractor Victor Ganish brought superstars to Beitar. "After we were relegated to the national team in the 1981/2 season, the contractor Ganish brought Spiegler and players including Spiegel, Shmuel Rosenthal, Avi Golder, Yaakov Cohen, Sholem Schwartz, Topolansky and others to the position of manager.
Within a season we returned to the first league.
I played with Giora Spiegel, one of the greatest Israeli players, Spiegel also returned to play.
Giora used to call me 'the brain'."
There was a story between Spiegler the coach and Giora the player.
"We trained at the university field in Tel Aviv.
Giora was late for the meeting for a justified reason from his point of view, but Spiegler decided not to let him be in the starting lineup."
He left and everything fell apart.
Artzi Ben Yaakov/courtesy of the photographer
You leave the field in Abu Kabir, you get a training ground at the level of the soldier.
"Money was decisive, especially when in the early 1980s we were constantly moving between the first league and the second league. I knew it was a must to have a home field, otherwise it would fall apart, we compromised on Ramat Hay'il in front of the Dan garage at the Hadar Yosef intersection."
Your and the team's record game?
"In the 1986/7 season, in the league we were at the bottom of the table, but we felt that it was possible to bring the trophy to Cafe Lanchaner. We passed Zafarir Holon, Maccabi Netanya and in the semi-finals we played in the Ramat Gan Stadium against Maccabi Haifa with Avi Ran, Roni Rosenthal, Meman, Brailovsky, Armeli and Selecter. I had a huge, excellent game. We drew 0:0 after 120 minutes, but a huge disappointment in the penalty shootout, we lost 4:2. They went to the final and lost on penalties to Maccabi Tel Aviv."
Five years in a row at the top.
Yaron Parslani at Beitar Tel Aviv in the late 1980s/Adi Avishi, Ma'ariv
At the end of the 1980s, the booming era of Artzi Ben Yaakov and Yitzhak Shum began.
"I tried to play for Maccabi Ramat Shikama, but I retired from football due to an injury, I moved to become the manager of Beitar Tel Aviv.
The team had a record five top playoff seasons.
Ben Yaakov turned the team into a family one, Yitzhak Shum only knew attacking football with beautiful goals.
It was a great team."
And then the fall begins.
"Artzi Ben Yaakov left the club, Beitar Center appointed Benzi Mordov to the position of chairman.
It was difficult without funds to maintain the training ground at the level of the soldier, heavy expenses of property taxes, water and electricity led to the decision.
A team without a home field actually does not exist, at the end of the 1992/3 season we were relegated to the national league from last place, we went up again, in 1995/6 we were relegated to the second league again, the club faded away."
The generation of old fans is fading. "Today there is no next generation," He says sadly, "They prefer to be fans of Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel and Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa. When we merged with Beitar Ramla, the identity was completely lost."
Veteran media personality Danny Devorin confirms: "I grew up on the stories of Beitar Tel Aviv of the 1940s, of which my father Lunia was one of the founders in 1934. This is a club that defeated the Yugoslav Hajduk 4:2, and won two national cups. Thousands of spectators, including British soldiers, came to the Maccabiah field to watch the exciting team. To hear that it is at the bottom of the second division , it's not caught. You can always recover and return to the top league, in these days of war you have to take everything in the right proportion."
Successful actor agent.
Oren Yehezkel (left)/Official website, Bnei Yehuda
Did Lior Shehtar try to bring the team back to its old ways?
"Shachter did everything to return to the old days, the union under Maccabi Tel Aviv worked well at first, the team was at the top of the second league, but fell to a generation of players from the youth of Maccabi Tel Aviv who were unable to raise it to the top league."
He cites Samson Tel Aviv as an example.
"My son Oren serves as a professional manager at Samshon together with Roy Ovadia, Avinoam's son, free no money. Samshon is in League A thanks to the fact that they have a soccer field on the banks of the Yarkon. Oren serves as a player agent and is the agent of Masai Dago."
Beitar Tel Aviv in 1947, before the cup final against Maccabi Tel Aviv/Walla! System, Danny Devorin
Money for economic promotion you made as an actor?
"I earned between 2,000 and 3,000 dollars a month as a player, they arranged a job for me at the Tel Aviv municipality and it was enough for the family. Show me today a soccer player in the Premier League who was paid 2,000 dollars a month."
At your disposal, politics and war.
"I stayed in Beitar, but after everything that happens I am ashamed of the government and its bad conduct."
Binyamin Netanyahu?
"One of our greatest leaders of all time, but after the war he needs to end his path, this is not the freedom movement of old."
Who Are you a soccer fan today?
"I'm from Beitar, I go to Beitar Jerusalem games and I strongly believe in the way of Yossi Aboksis."
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