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Guy Haimov in a retirement interview: "My whole life has been in persecution and struggle"
Maccabi Haifa ("my biggest miss"), Maccabi Tel Aviv ("I wanted to retire from football"), the SMS that arranged a contract for him at Hapoel Beer Sheva and the painful departure from the Negev capital: "Alona and I did not even say goodbye when we passed each other."
The goalkeeper sums up a career, including his wife's crying and self-fulfilling prophecy
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Guy Haimov
Hapoel Beer Sheva
Maccabi Haifa
Maccabi Tel Aviv in football
Shlomo Weiss
Monday, October 26, 2020, 11:00 p.m.
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Watch Guy Haimov sum up his career in a retirement interview (Photo: Danny Maron, video editing: Nir Chen)
On May 21, 2016, Guy Haimov, the goalkeeper of Kiryat Shmona, sat with his family and watched Hapoel Beer Sheva's championship game against Bnei Sakhnin.
With the final whistle, as the freshman champions frantically celebrated the sweet title, the goalkeeper's wife, Sydney, burst into tears.
"We did not understand what was happening and I asked her, 'What is happening? Why are you crying?'" He recalled this week.
"Then she said to me, 'You work so hard and you have no championship. I do not care about anything - you will also be there, you will be at Hapoel Beer Sheva and take a championship."
In those days Haimov was not at all on the agenda with the new champion and the status of his deported uncle was stronger than ever, but a few weeks later the turning point occurred.
Haimov was with the team and in one of the training sessions, the players held a football tournament and the winning team included Shir Tzedek, Maor Melikson and Ofir Davidzada.
Haimov received the picture of the winners and with half a wink sent a message to the champion's coach, Barak Bachar.
"I sent him the picture without really intending and wrote to him, 'Looks good, doesn't it?'
I did not remember it and went on a vacation in Greece with my family and Chen Dilmoni and suddenly Barak sent me a message: 'Izzy will release you?' "After Bachar's announcement, Haimov began to make moves to fulfill his and the woman's dream.
Phones to Agent Gilad Katsav led to quick negotiations between Shretzky and Alona Barkat and the goalkeeper's signing in the Negev capital, where he won two championships and was a partner in tremendous travels in Europe.
Last week, after already hanging up his gloves, Haimov sat down for a heart-to-heart conversation at his new home in Ness Ziona.
About the crises at the beginning of his career, the big moments, the interview that almost crushed his career, his wife's involvement, the miss at Maccabi Haifa and also about his next challenge.
More on Walla!
NEWS
Age 34: Guy Haimov announces retirement from football
To the full article
Made his way to the top.
Haimov (Photo: Danny Maron)
Would you believe a few months ago we sat down for a retirement interview?
"From the moment I was injured I felt there was a situation that I would not return to play. After the conversation with the surgeon I realized it was not a normal injury, but the corona period contributed to me being focused only on rehabilitation. I was in quarantine and was like drugged for rehabilitation, "I started to feel like after a few months I was doing things I had never dreamed of doing. The doctor and all the medical staff were in the market, but when I went back to goalkeeping training I felt that something was not one hundred percent and that if I pushed to the edge I would do damage to life."
So in the end you chose a normal life after football.
"It was an informed choice between being a person who had finished a career and could pick up his girl, play with the kids and help with the house with basic things - and someone who might not be able to do basic things."
But fans come and say, if you had an interesting offer you would not retire.
"I would not lie. If I had an offer from a big team it would make me think more and maybe take a risk. But I really think that in the end in Money Time I would not agree to continue."
When you realized that Barak Bachar would replace Marco Belbul and bring with him Guy Wiesinger, with whom you have an excellent relationship, did you think you would stay at Maccabi Haifa?
"It happened right at the time I thought I could come back. Even the medical staff at Maccabi Haifa told me, 'You are there.' I had a drive because Barak and Guy were probably coming and I thought I could restore the ability from Be'er Sheva but as time went on and I realized it was not there, so it is not I was interested in whether they would take it or not. "
There is serious criticism of the current generation of goalkeepers.
"A goalkeeper is a very difficult job in every way. You can not just be talented because it will not be enough. In the previous generation, if you look at the great goalkeepers, they had almost no footwork and the only job was to stop balls. Today, the goalkeeper has to manage the entire back line "Of the team. It is difficult to compare the generations. Of course the generation of Davidovich, Awat, Strauber, Elimelech and others is a crazy generation even in today's conditions, but even today there are very good goalkeepers."
You have recorded tremendous achievements in quite a few teams, but in the youth team of Maccabi Tel Aviv you did not make a mark.
"I returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv in the second term at the front door. I left at the age of 22 and went to Ramat Gan for a year and then to Kiryat Shmona and then they wanted me very much back. I was signed in Kiryat Shmona for four years and Izzy Shretzky said there would be no problem with Maccabi Tel Aviv. And will pay as much as I should. I said to myself, I'm fine in Kiryat Shmona, there's a good team and I'm good, but on the other hand I'm coming back through the front door after one of the people in the system who did not want me there just left and that was one of the hardest decisions of my career. "The start of the season was amazing for me, also in Europe. In the end I got out of the team and came back towards the end of the season, and the most absurd thing is that a false eight took a championship. It was very difficult for me."
Why did you not succeed?
"Maybe I was not ready enough. The following season Jordy came and said to me, 'I want you but I need to bring another goalkeeper.' I asked him who he was bringing and he told me Vincent Anime. I said I could handle goalkeepers but Vincent "It's a high level and I will not play, so I preferred to leave for Cyprus because even after I played I could not sit on the bench again."
And you had an amazing season there.
"I broke the record there and didn't absorb 740 minutes. That record still holds."
Are you following this?
"No, but I know that once it breaks down, they will call me to take a response."
These days, everyone knows the parents of every player.
I do not think there is anyone who even knows the names of your parents.
"My parents were always like that. They gave me the whole envelope until the age of 18. My mother would leave work for hours to take me to Wingate. We would go to the holes to buy gloves. Abroad they made sure to buy me equipment but they never supported Talk and intervene. "
But there was another dominant figure by your side.
(Laughs)" Yes, Sydney with me from the age of 15, she came to Kiryat Shalom for games and this bacterium entered her as well. "
Where is the moment she becomes so dominant?
" In my first contract in Kiryat Shmona.
She was actually kind of my agent. "" And
you needed that?
"" Yes.
I understood this as soon as I finished at Maccabi Tel Aviv and at Maor Buzaglo's event I saw Vicky Peretz.
He told me that he was forcibly signing Ramat Gan nationally and that he would talk to me.
There she and I realized that we had to put more shoulders because until then they would throw me from place to place. "
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A post shared by Guy Haimov 55 official (@ guyhaimov55) on May 12, 2019 at 12:45 am PDT
Your last year in the first term at Maccabi Tel Aviv was traumatic.
"It was hard. Mentally I had a very hard time. I trained well but I knew there was someone in the system no matter what, he didn't want me there. I wanted to retire from football at that moment. I returned after a season and a half in Kfar Saba and gave Maccabi Tel Aviv a crazy training camp, players "They were in shock, but I said I was not going to fight to be a third goalkeeper and at the end of that season I said to myself - I am retiring."
Why?
"It was half a year that I thank God for keeping me. Because no matter what I did, I didn't play, and at one point they didn't even want me to come to training and suddenly I found myself hanging out and going out all the time and could easily escape. In hindsight, that period strengthened me."
how?
"Hezi Nachshoni, who has been my fitness coach since the age of 13, came to me and said, 'Guy, you have to wake up and fly away and go play no matter if you earn 5,000 shekels.' He would come down on me because I thought I was bigger than a national league and I had none. "One offer. For me, this is a turning point year - when I moved to strength and managed to keep the team in the league with excellent ability. Here, Sydney and I realized that this is the last chance for a successful career."
Then you moved to Kiryat Shmona.
"I will never forget it. A month before the end of the season I leave the bathroom and Ran Ben Shimon is on the line. He tells me that he saw my ability in the league (Kiryat Shmona was promoted to the league that season, S.M.), and what I think of coming to Kiryat Shmona.
I answered at that moment probably and I did not care where, as soon as he told me the Premier League I knew I had to come and fight Danny Amos. "And the
war was hard?
" Ask everyone who was in Kiryat Shmona about the opening of this season and he will tell you it was madness.
It was impossible to subdue me or Danny.
We were both insane. "And the
relationship between you
two
?
" We were both young and we could not maintain a good relationship in the first year, but over the years we have matured and the relationship is good.
Until the first game no one knew who would open.
On the morning of that game against Sakhnin, Pini Avraham, the goalkeeping coach, called me and told me that I was opening. "
But in the middle of that season, Danny took your place again.
" I was amazing, but then there was a game against Maccabi Tel Aviv and I was inexperienced. And I talked too much, I said I have no problem with Maccabi Tel Aviv taking the championship and that is while we are competing with them for the championship.
I realized that people in the club are disappointed in me.
Sydney called the editor and told him - 'I don't care, this article is not coming out'.
At the end of the article it did come out and Izzy did not want to hear from me, Ren was also hurt by me and I was expelled from the band. "
Izzy talked to you?
" Ren talked to me and told me that Izzy wants me to fly out of the group at all.
Ren did not speak to me for two weeks and he cut me off in those moments.
But I justify them, they were absolutely right.
After two months I came back and gave the sequel a fantastic season.
In those moments I said to myself - I was already returning to the main stage, and suddenly because of one interview I kicked a bucket. "
Despite this incident, your and Ren's connection is very strong.
" Without a doubt.
I consult with him on many things.
He is the head coach who has influenced me the most.
He has this knowledge, how to handle the staff.
I knew from Ren what it is to smile and what competitiveness is and he taught me a lot of things. "
At the end it ends with flowers.
Haimov and Shretzky (Photo: Adrian Herbstein)
You came to Be'er Sheva as a national team goalkeeper, but on the standard of a second goalkeeper, his uncle was expelled.
Not an obvious decision.
"After the third year in Kiryat Shmona, when we survived the last round. It was a very difficult year after Barak left and although it started with the title of Champion of Champions, it was a very difficult year."
You're talking about the Champion of Champions and this is probably the most famous game of your career.
(Laughs) "Reward, it's a famous game. I stopped four penalties for two players but the referee kept canceling because he said I was off the line and it drove me crazy."
Did you pose as you went down towards the dressing room, or did you really want to stop standing at the gate?
"Pini Avraham and Benny Ben Zaken brought me back, without them I go down. I could not accept that I take a penalty and they take it from me. Today it was much harder for me to take penalties because then they did not put too much emphasis on it. I saw goalkeepers in the world and no one He spoke and then I said, wait, is it because this is Maccabi Tel Aviv? But to my joy we won and it was a crazy game. "
Then at the end of that season you're going to be a second goalkeeper.
"I wanted to take a championship and I believed in myself. I knew I would start a second goalkeeper, Alona told me that his uncle took a championship and he is a first goalkeeper. But all my life it was in persecution and struggle. Never in my career was anything easy. At one point it was tiring, but when I had a struggle I got out. It started hard because it took me a while to get into the game format that Barak and the club wanted. The team was the best I can remember an Israeli team. It is at the level of the biggest teams in the history of Israel. This team stood and looked equal against teams in Italy and England, and did not reach the goal "It was impossible to replace his uncle because they did not reach the goal at all. In the end I got the chance against Hapoel Haifa, we ended in a 0-0 draw and I was excellent and then there was a dilemma, but since then I have joined the team and the rest is history."
Why did you leave in the end?
"I was at my peak at the end of my second season there, the defense changes and I give good views and I do not understand why no one talks to me to extend a contract. It made me very angry. I sat on Gilad Katsav and said - it can not be. In the end I had a conversation with Alona "And I said to her, 'If you do not want me, I want to go.' But things went awry and Alona and I did not talk at all, not even peace when we passed each other."
Are you injured from Be'er Sheva?
"I was in the middle of the holiday with the kids and there was a publicity that Ernests Stakus was coming. I was shocked, I thought maybe just an agent trying to push. In the middle of Germany I called Assi Rahamim and said to him, 'Do you think I should be in the middle of a holiday in front of all the questions?'
He told me it was not true and it did not happen, and I calmed down. I asked for a denial but the club refused and said that not for any wrong information they would issue a denial. A week before we went to a training camp in Poland Sydney had to move the whole house from Omar to Be'er Sheva "Let's shake hands and tell me the truth - but do not let me move and Sydney will move to Be'er Sheva alone." If there is anything tell me and I will stop, but he promised there is nothing. It drove me crazy, he helped me move apartment and schools while he knows That's what's going on. As soon as my family is harmed it's the border and it's my red line. My son was very hurt, and it hurt him, he started school a few weeks ago and then we moved to Haifa. It hurt me a lot and especially Massey, because I know he is not a typical football player I later heard that he told the players not to make the same mistake, and he told the players everything inside "
if you see him and Alona?
"I do not hold a grudge or close doors. In those moments I could not look at them both."
A telegram is also damaged?
"It was probably done with his knowledge but I think not in his mind. I know later that the whole team wanted me to stay and they said it was a point that should not be touched. I am in touch with Barak even today."
Never in his career has anything been easy.
At one point it was tiring, but when I had a struggle I took more out of myself. "Haimov in Be'er Sheva (Photo: Berni Ardov)
You have not been able to restore the achievements of Maccabi Haifa.
"Maccabi Haifa is my biggest mistake, unequivocally. I would like the period when we were good and came back to ourselves to be interpreted as more time."
You were not stable.
"I analyzed it and I agree. There were things that were also bigger than me. Obviously I was not in my capacity in Be'er Sheva and I was unstable, but I came to a place where everything was upside down from what I knew."
What does that mean?
"I will never get dirty about where I was, but I think there was no uniform line at Maccabi Haifa and there was no clear path. I wanted to change things, especially between the media and the audience, but I often felt that the players were in the line of fire and their struggle was relatively difficult."
What needs to change?
"I know that Barak is now changing that. Maccabi Haifa is an excellent club but had to produce a uniform line of the whole system. The club has learned, there is no doubt."
In Haifa, a nickname for Itzik Aharonovitch, Haifa radio commentator - "short hands".
"It made me laugh. I'm a man of facts, in Be'er Sheva the hands were not short? You have to understand that Haifa is just a city of football and people do not know how to filter. 24/7 This city on the radio and around Maccabi Haifa and some fans think everything said is true. Too bad." .
But you can say with all your heart that the period at Maccabi Haifa is the least good in your last years.
"I always felt like a very stable goalkeeper and in Haifa I felt I was not the most stable, and there a light bulb went on and I tried to understand what was happening. The bottom line is not what I would expect from myself."
And yet, your biggest rescue was in Haifa, against Strasbourg.
"It was only after the game that I realized what a rescue I had made. It's rare for a triple rescue to be rescued and it's something that should cost too much for him."
The difference from what is happening so far this season to last season, is that against Strasbourg as if you were content with a victory and not a rise.
"We were very unlucky. They disqualified a goal that would have taken us up. I understand where you are going but it's a club's way and I think we're instilling it now. We were a team that wanted to attack and wanted to win but it was like they felt they wanted to keep it."
A big miss at Maccabi Haifa.
Haimov (Photo: Danny Maron)
Did Josh Cohen's success surprise you?
"Yes, because he came at first as some American boy. When we trained together I realized he was talented and deserves huge credit to Giora Antman who brought him into a situation from someone who came on second standard to a senior goalkeeper who did an amazing season."
As one who has been there, criticism of the defensive part is strong even now.
What's the problem with defense?
"People need to understand a simple thing. A team takes a championship first from behind. Every team that took a championship got a low number of absorbs. You have to start first the whole team fired for the defensive game and that's a problem Barak will have to deal with. In my season we were not strong enough. Leading 0: 1 You knew it would be difficult to keep it.The problem, image, is when I played 0: 1 there was contempt, because in Maccabi Haifa it is not good to win 0: 1. In Be'er Sheva I knew it would remain the advantage or we would increase, and here I was afraid. The goddesses were sometimes accepted, because they knew that 0: 1 is a victory, but in Haifa they want 0: 3 every game.
What next?
"I do not know yet, but it will be either to turn to business or stay in football - but only in the case of academies for children and youth." .
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