If there is one thing that makes Emanuel, Tal Ben Haim's father, arouse, it is when they say that Tal Ben Haim is a creation of work and not of talent. Tomorrow (Wednesday, 17:00, live broadcast on Walla! Sport) Tal Ben Haim will officially announce his retirement from a game and end one of the glorious episodes of an Israeli footballer, one that every father dreams of, but Emanuel bothers today, when Tal is 40, which the media categorizes His son as someone who made a career thanks to work ethic and motivation. Say mental ability, say resilience to crises, say determination. Stop saying he only succeeded because he worked. And difficult.
Tal Ben Haim was 6 years old when Emanuel took him to train at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Like today, even then they lived in Rishon Lezion and the eldest son, Tal's brother, was already playing on the pitches in Kiryat Shalom. Tal loved football, but liked swimming more. He had a slightly bent back, so he swam for health and body as well. At one point he wanted to give up football and focus on swimming, but Emanuel insisted that football should not be given up because it is impossible to make a living from swimming.
So Tal only continued in football.
His physical advantage, the one that became his trademark, also stood out in children and by the age of 14 he took advantage of it to become a pioneer.
When Emanuel talks about talent he reminds the exiles that Thal lamb as a pioneer.
There was even a season in which he scored 20 goals.
Then coach Amnon Ballali came along and suggested that Thal be a brake.
In the lectures he already gives, Ben Haim even brings in Ballali and presents him as the one who made the choice for him.
Just do not say he succeeded only because he worked hard.
Tal Ben Haim (Photo: Danny Maron)
At 14 you want to score expatriates and not chase after pioneers.
One time Tal came home after training and burst into tears.
He said that being a brake did not suit him and that he even wanted to retire if he was forced to
Emanuel once laughed when they were together and told Tal that he should sue Amnon because if he had continued as a striker, he would have made more money. But Bally recommended that he switch to braking and Tal had a hard time swallowing the bitter pill. At 14 you want to score expatriates and not chase after pioneers. One time Tal came home after training and burst into tears. He said that being a brake did not suit him and that he even wanted to retire if he was forced to.
Emanuel called Amnon and told him: "If you want him to be a brake, you will teach him to be the best brake in the country." From that conversation things changed. At the age of 15, Tal Ben Haim was marked as the future brake of Maccabi Tel Aviv. At the age of 16, he had already trained with the seniors and became the shaky defense hope of Israeli football.
Along with the impressive ability and the fact that he made his way to the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad with Nir Levin 21 years ago when he was barely 18, including in games in Europe, what set Ben Haim apart, for those who knew him deeply, was his opinion, maturity and the fact that he fought at such a young age. The war of the young.
This was a time when several young people came together for the graduates of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Avi Stroll, Dudu Avraham, Mani Levy, Eli Bitton, Kobi Musa and also one Reuven Oved.
Ben Haim is barely 18 years old and has already extended his sponsorship to everyone.
Did not let the veterans speak a word against the young.
No fear of loud confrontations in the locker room.
Did not lower his head in front of anyone.
It was the education he received at home from Emmanuel and his mother that passed away last year and left a deep space in his heart.
Put something in the lots.
Emanuel Ben Haim with Tal on the way to Bolton (Photo: Danny Maron)
Maccabi Tel Aviv did not know how to deal with Tal Ben Haim and missed him. Long before Dor Peretz left without Maccabi Tel Aviv seeing the Euro, Tal Ben Haim left for Bolton and Maccabi Tel Aviv received almost nothing
Everyone who covered Maccabi Tel Aviv at that time knew Emanuel. Almost a decade before Yaakov Buzaglo and Batya Shehar, Emanuel Ben Haim was a thing there on the football fields and on the training grounds but only there. He did not call journalists, did not complain about grades and did not comment at all when they wrote badly about Tal or did not write at all and the truth was that it was impossible not to write.
But in every training present, he brings Ben Haim in a small commercial vehicle that was used by him for work. When Tal was a member of the Israeli national team, he was still sitting in the back seat of the small Renault after he was barely pushed inside. Even at school, Emanuel often said, Tal would have fought if he had seen injustices. Did not let the weak be stepped on.
The connection between them was a thing. At halftime, when all the players were off the field for a quarter of an hour of refreshment, Tal would go to the stands, looking for Dad to get advice on his first half. By nightfall, by the time the game was over, he had already received a detailed report of his ability for 90 minutes.
Maccabi Tel Aviv did not know how to deal with Tal Ben Haim and missed him.
Long before Dor Peretz left without Maccabi Tel Aviv seeing the Euro, Tal Ben Haim left for Bolton and Maccabi Tel Aviv received almost nothing.
Emanuel then told Maccabi Tel Aviv that they were going to lose him.
Warned them that the child would leave.
Said that if they did not show some generosity and open the contract, they would be left without him.
But Maccabi thought he should only get a soldier's salary and even a car they barely gave.
This was already a time when agents were courting Ben Haim.
They sat at his house in Rishon Lezion and asked for a mandate to represent them in Europe.
Haifa's David Abu was given the green light to close with Bolton and Tal set out on a career that it is doubtful if anyone at Maccabi Tel Aviv believed would last more than ten years, including a host of formidable teams in England.
Gave a promise to his father.
Jose Mourinho with Tal Ben Haim (Photo: Reuters)
Every parent must have been excited and shivering when Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, said he wanted the child.
Emanuel did not blink and asked, "How will he play with you? You have John Terry, there is Carvalho, there is Alex. Will there be room for Tal?"
In his first season at Bolton he won a very low salary, certainly not one suitable for a free agent who comes to the Premier League.
He also came to exams at all at first.
Emanuel was convinced he would go through them and get a contract.
Tal was disappointed with the salary, but Emanuel calmed down.
"You will give one good season. After that you will be chased with the money," he told him.
There were also offers from Germany, but Emanuel gambled on England, where Avi Cohen, Roni Rosenthal and Eyal Berkovich have already proven that the Israeli player is worth it.
Ben Haim blossomed in Bolton. Shattered many opinions about him in Israel and progressed from game to game and from season to season. If there is one moment that Emmanuel remembers most of Tal's entire career, it is the encounter he had with Jose Mourinho at a hotel in London. Every parent must have been excited and shivering when Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, said he wanted the child. Emanuel did not blink and asked, "How will he play with you? You have John Terry, there is Carvalho, there is Alex. Will there be room for Tal?". The special, which at the time was still really special, put a hand on the shoulder of Emanuel Ben-Haim and returned: "Whoever is good at me plays. If he is good, he will play. Be sure of that."
And Ben Haim played. Maybe less than he had hoped for, but being a Chelsea player at the time was like being at PSG today alongside Messi, Neymar and Ambape. Maybe actually even more. After Chelsea there was also Manchester City and a host of other teams in England. Crazy career. Berkowitz once said of Ben-Haim that he is the great brakeman born here.Many agree with him.
Crazy career in England.
Ben Haim vs. Wayne Rooney (Photo: GettyImages)
Ben-Haim broke a lot of glass ceilings, but it was in his home club that he was engraved more than once.
He was returned to Israel and signed after the long journey in England, but in his darkest dreams he did not believe that Maccabi Tel Aviv would send him to look for another team.
He was convinced he would play at the club until he hung up his shoes.
He will educate generations of young people where he stepped on grass for the first time when he was 6. He will play until he decides to retire and then move on to management or coaching, maybe something in between.
What Barak Yitzhaki is doing today must have been his dream and maybe one day he will do it, but in the meantime Ben Haim is going to the professional team of Willy Rotensteiner, to the team where he made 96 appearances, second only to Yossi Benyon who played with him in recent years and probably to many personal trainings and lectures.
He has something to give and some see in the videos he uploads on the private Instagram from the sands of Palmachim where he has established his home in the meantime.
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Maccabi Tel Aviv fans protest against the departure of Tal Ben Haim in 2018 (Photo and editing: Kobi Eliyahu)
He has a baggage that he needs to carry on like that evening at the Maximir Stadium in Zagreb when he was only 19 September 2001. Gadi Bromer was injured and needed a brake for a game in the UEFA Cup next to Amir Shelach. the game on the bus to the hotel, he asked permission to say something to the media which was then more may be on the bus with the players. There were no Web sites or the press spoke of Friday morning, was a great thing.
Ben Haim, with his confidence but also with humility, spoke and promised Tomorrow, exactly twenty years after those words in the Croatian capital, he will start a new path and if he brings to it even a little of what he brought to the game as a player, Israeli football will be rewarded.
