Melixon: "Hard without football, it's a bacterium" Israel today

10 months after hanging the shoes, Maor Melikson reveals that he retired at the age of 15 • Recalls the great moments: "The Polish coach showed me on the page 'Here Lewandowski will play and here you are'" • Regrets: "I could have been more significant in the Israeli team" • And admits: "Sometimes The thought of returning to play, but that's it, is over "

• The Melixon family.

  Maor: "Today I have even less time at home"

  Photography: 

  Courtesy of the family

Obviously a one-on-one interview is best done in a one-on-one meeting, but it's the Corona era and Maor Melikson's retirement interview, ten months after he hung up his shoes, he does while walking in the Neve Ilan neighborhood in Yavne, where it really started.

Few players grow up today and played football in the neighborhood.

The asphalt on which Melixon played as a child was replaced by synthetic pitches at best, and computers and tablets at worst. 

One can only imagine a picture of the skinny boy juggling the ball in the street while everyone is admiring him, but despite everything he admits: "I did not think I would make a career like this. At 13-12 I was called down and that's it, until tonight we were out with the ball and the bike. How everything It started with Maccabi Yavneh. There were some good players with me and a lot of guys my age moved to Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv, and only I stayed. "

"Not many know but at the age of 15 I retired, I said 'come on, enough', and that's it. The coach then told me I was prominent, but I did not listen to him. Everyone left for large groups and I stayed with some guys in Yavne. At the end, after a few months the coach called me And I came back. I came from the neighborhood, and I'm sure more footballers like me would play in the street with the guys. That's why I might not have developed in my early years as an adult player. I was terribly short, mentally, a short shirt that reaches to the end of my hand. At 16 I was maybe 1.6m ', Very small and slowly I grew a little.'

"In Betar I had a very significant period. After I retired I went through old articles that my mother and father kept and saw what they wrote after the game. My first is there. Betar Jerusalem, I am 17 years old, I was tested in a group and after ten minutes they stopped training and said 'Come and sign a youth contract'.

We had a training game against Tobruk in the youth, the sheriff Eli Cohen coached and he later called me for an alumni game against Maccabi Netanya.

So there were no full sports channels.

Eli Itzik Zohar put me in his place, I had a good game and I immediately got a graduate contract. "

And that is, since he was marked as a star. The Betar crowd fell in love with him, later in his career it was Hapoel B'Shlosha fans who were captivated by his charms, Haifa and Hapoel Kfar Saba and continued his European career at Wisla Krakow and Valencia from France. 

The skinny player from Yavneh has matured, become stronger and has become one of the most prominent players in Israeli football.

"As soon as I was relegated to the second division with Hapoel B'Shlosha, I started to swell," he says, "from there I moved to Poland, where I gained a lot of muscle mass.

When I was 23-22, I played for Roni Levy at Maccabi Haifa.

One training session he passes by and says, 'This at 28 will be the best in the country'.

He realized I was not ready yet.

I really appreciate Roni Levy today, even at that time I appreciated him. "

" Today it looks psychedelic, but the Poland coach flew Eli then tell me he wants me.

He even showed me on the page 'Lewandowski plays here, the one here and you here', actually showed me the lineup with the big names and I am among them.

I was offered advertising contracts, Poland hosted the Euro that year and it seemed huge, but then I remembered my childhood, my dreams of playing for the Israeli national team.

When I said I was giving up on Poland, I already knew in that second that I was missing something big here. "The

" There is something about it, I could be more significant on the team.

There was the campaign we played at home with Portugal - so I played a lot, but by and large I agree. " 

"That's right. A footballer's record, for me at least, is at the age of 30-27. Maybe if I had stayed in those years in the WC we could have done a few more things.

"There is no place I connected with like Hapoel B'Shlosha, and after I finished with football I thought it was possible to give more to the club. I am happy that in the end we won championships and that we had a dream time in the home stage of the Europa League." 

"Until the age of 34, no one knew that I was a Tutnik"

Even today, after retirement, he is at Hapoel B'Shlosha, the assistant coach of Yossi Aboksis. But those who know the team know that "Mali" (he has no other name in the Negev capital) is far beyond In training, he continues to play with his friends in games, and when Joshua had a birthday he was the one who pushed the cake in his face. 

Melixon and friends.

Adapted quickly to a position on the coaching staff // Photo: Alan Schieber

Melixon is the one the players consult with, talk to about the most personal things, but also the man who will sit for hours on the video scheduled for the team meetings.

And yes, even at 36, ten months after he hung up his shoes, it tickles him to get back to playing. 

"Today we just finished a game, two players came to me and said, 'Why don't you come back from retirement?'" He says, "It's hard without football. All I know is football, a 20-year career, it's a bacterium. There are games, suddenly a player is missing. "So I join and sometimes stand like another eye beside Aboksis. I feel in good shape, the truth is, sometimes it crosses my mind to go back to playing, but enough, that's it, it's over, enough." 

"I can play football, but after a few minutes I feel the leg hardens, the blood flows slowly and that's it, you have to rest. You can't rest and stop on the pitch. Listen, it's not easy at all. I'm lucky in every way, because I had a difficult medical procedure, I stayed In the profession and I learn from a coach like Aboksis. There are those for whom it has stopped and there is nothing left. And still hard for me. At first when I retired I was fine, but then came a harder time. 

"After a few months, when the Corona rush began, I felt I could continue playing But I said to myself, 'Maor, enough, you're not an actor, get out of this.'

I will say more than that - it even tickled me to play in the cup final for a few minutes.

God forbid come in complaints or anything, just say ". And the

(Laughs)" I'm terribly stupid, love to laugh with friends, but you agree with me that until age 34 no one That I'm like that?

Once I practice or play then it's a job.

outside?

I am a different person.

We have to laugh and smile, we are human beings and in 15 years of football I am a different person, a professional properly. "

" It's a bit strange.

I said to myself, 'I'm their friend, now give them comments'?

Then the members of the professional team made me realize that if I went with my truth it would be okay.

I understand the claims of the players, their heart, because I was in their place.

"Suddenly after two days off, they do a really long training session, so as a player I would complain, but in the team I understand how important it is for the physical fitness of the players." 

Melikson in a Betar Jerusalem uniform. Burglary at the age of 17 // Photo: Alan Shiber

Who is the best coach to coach you in your career?

"Wow, I went through a lot of coaches and I'm not comfortable choosing. I had Eli Ohana in Betar, Roni Levy in Haifa, Barak Bachar in Beit Shemesh and I took a little from each one. I had an obvious connection with Bachar. We would not talk much, he did not say "To me he would not take me out and nothing. Everyone was sure we were talking all day and that I was his banker, but it was not like that. Even when he would take me out and I was angry I knew everything was professional."

"A very difficult question. I think with Valencia at the Parc des France against PSG. They had to win to take a championship and we won there, what a game it was."

"Celtic Park. There's a psychic vibe there. But hear a story - on the turn at Turner me and his voice Tora in line for a drug test, he tells me 'Listen, this stadium has crazy energies,' and really Turner is the stadium."

"We need to build a statue of Asi Rahamim in Turner"

Now, during the closure, Melikson returned with his wife Tal and their children Liam (6), Uri (4) and Ariel (9 months) to Birch, where there is help from their parents.

Speaking of parents, Armand and Rebecca, Melikson's parents, rarely attended games during their careers.

"My father takes it hard if I was cursed or if God forbid I was injured. In one of the few games there was, we took a championship in Poland against Krakow and I scored a goal. 

" The parents came to visit and it turned out that if we win this game we will win a championship.

I ran to them and this is a moment I will take for life, they deserve it.

My parents wanted studies, studies, studies.

I was thinking of being a fighter in the army and it also bothered me a bit that I did not do it, so in the end football gave us back. "

" No (laughs), today even less.

I get to training earlier and stay behind.

The staff works longer hours.

I make a lot of videos, help Yossi with everything he needs - the content of the training and in general. "

Melixon.

Reconciled with retirement // Photo: Alan Schieber

So how do you pass the time in quarantine?

This is a hallucinatory period.

"It's not pleasant. We are in Yavne with my wife's parents because there are no kindergartens. They help with the children and beyond that in the group we hope to continue to win so that there is employment. It is not at all obvious what happens to us. People forget a bit, but Alona (Barkat; L" N) Still the owner and she pays everyone the salaries and on time. 

"Asi Rahamim - there are no such people in the world. His statue outside Turner should be built on what he does for Hapoel B'Shlosha.

There is no place to write everything, but in the end he did everything to have a team here that is one game away from the home stage of the Europa League.

The fact that there is only one game pretty much preyed on the cards, especially when we were ranked.

Maybe now that Plzen is ranked it will actually go in our favor.

If so, it will be an amazing achievement. "