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Yitzhaki last? The question of the derby and the future of Barak Yitzhaki - Walla! sport

2021-11-07T12:13:54.667Z


From the moment he took on the role of interim coach, Barak Yitzhaki did not smile. The man who knew how to give a show on the field, will have to direct his last show on the lines tonight


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Yitzhaki last?

The question of the derby and the future of Barak Yitzhaki

From the moment he took on the role of interim coach, Barak Yitzhaki did not smile.

The man who knew how to give a show on the field, will have to direct his last show on the lines tonight.

One that will pave the way for a permanent coach position on the day he leaves Maccabi Tel Aviv.

How did the one who was thrown into Cyprus become a powerful figure in Kiryat Shalom?

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  • Maccabi Tel Aviv in football

  • Barak Itzhaki

Yaniv Tuchman

Sunday, 07 November 2021, 13:30

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Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - HIK Helsinki 0: 3 (Sport 1)

Matan Hozaz finished first and got up to leave the press conference hall in Bloomfield. The Maccabi Tel Aviv midfielder scored the third goal a few minutes earlier against HIC Helsinki with a great kick from outside the box and was sent to a meeting with the journalists at the end. Next to Hozaz, Barak Yitzhaki sat with a sealed face and waited for his player to finish. For almost two weeks now, Yitzhaki has not been smiling. Serious and tough. Even when he was happy about each of the six goals that Maccabi Tel Aviv scored during his time as interim coach, he barely smiled. When Hozaz got up to leave the table, the journalists were called "Coach." in English. A kind of repression of the famous appeal to the foreign coaches of Maccabi Tel Aviv in recent years. This did not make Yitzhaki laugh either. One of the ushers sitting in the hall actually laughed and Yitzhaki gave him a frown.



From the moment he accepted the appointment, Yitzhaki added another dimension of seriousness. The same elements that led him to surprisingly take on such a central role in Mitch Goldhaar's lineup at Maccabi Tel Aviv have accompanied him for more than three years since he retired. At first he learned the job and accompanied every meeting of CEO Ben Mansford. But since the Englishman left, Yitzhaki has progressed and positioned himself strongly at the center of the professional management avenue at Maccabi Tel Aviv.



Next to Vladan Ivic and Patrick Van Leven he still served as a second violin.

Both were very forceful.

Very different, but very dominant, each in his own way, and the wise Isaac knew how to adapt himself to them.

If there was a major reason for the garden, Ivica wanted to come, it was Yitzhaki.

The connection between them is wonderful.

To this day.

When Yitzhaki wanted to sign Stifa Fritza, the first phone call was to Ivica, who knew him from Watford.

Nothing from the conversation between them was leaked to the media.

A relationship of mutual respect and trust.

Yitzhaki would very much like to see Ivica here again, but other reasons caused the Serb to refuse.

More on Walla!

About 500 fans came to Kiryat Shalom.

Glazer: "Training rate increases significantly"

To the full article

He was the reason Ivica wanted to come back.

Barak Yitzhaki (Photo: Berni Ardov)

Yitzhaki has come a long way from the moment he was sent to Cyprus as soon as Jordi Cruyff arrived in 2012 until the day he holds several hats including that of interim coach. If there was a moment when he positioned himself as a man who could be trusted, it was at the moment of retirement or rather in the process that preceded him. Yitzhaki could have continued to play. Like Itai Schechter or Eitan Tibi who left this summer at an advanced age, he too could have continued his playing career at the club with more modest ambitions than that of Maccabi Tel Aviv. But with the push of Jordi Cruyff leaving in June 2018, Yitzhaki decided to hang up his shoes and win the new management position when no one writes anything about it in the media. If you want to open your right foot in front of the bosses in Canada, everything must be in the official announcements of the club. Yitzhaki knew how to keep close to his chest the change he was about to make and passed the first test against Toronto successfully.



When he was sent to Cyprus at the beginning of the Cruyff era, many doubted whether he would return to Maccabi Tel Aviv at all.

It was two years after Mitch Goldhaar bought him from Betar Jerusalem for $ 1.7 million. After two years of disappointments, he was marked by Maccabi Tel Aviv as a divisive and unifying factor. As someone whose presence in Kiryat Shalom does not contribute to the boss' journey from Canada. That Cruyff knew who he was. There on the neighboring island, his journey began on the way to the summit at Maccabi Tel Aviv. It was about six months after he scored his only goal in the Tel Aviv derby games. Tel Aviv. Mario Pachalka, Elroy Cohen and Shai Abutbul scored for Hapoel Tel Aviv. Barak Yitzhaki only shrank in the middle with a smart and characteristic shot.

Ten years after his only goal in the derbies.

Barak Yitzhaki (Photo: Berni Ardov)

Yitzhaki will soon return to his basic position as director of the football department at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Last week he was asked to explain this definition and replied that he has no problem being defined as a professional manager or a sports manager, but his role is broader. He is in charge of the relationship with Betar Tel Aviv Bat Yam, heads the scouting team and is now also a temporary coach. There is no player who comes to Maccabi Tel Aviv who does not go through his agreement. The next coach to be appointed will also have to pass his approval. The personal graduation work in the pro course and then he will also have a pro certificate.If he wanted to coach regularly, he could because he was in the final stages of the course and the principal Willy Rotensteiner gave him an official permit.



But Yitzhaki does not intend to coach now and he would probably have wanted to do his job at Maccabi Tel Aviv all his life.

Just as he was a sophisticated and cunning player, so in his current life he knows that the role of coach is temporary.

More than as a professional manager, as a coach you are directly dependent on the results of the games on Saturday.

Very much depends on your players.

Yitzhaki knows this, but it is not inconceivable that he will have to work as a coach in the future and for that he also issued the pro certificate.

Working in a football club on the scale of Maccabi Tel Aviv with the known requirements and pressures, must constantly meet very high standards of success.

Even Jordi Cruyff came to the end of the road after starting three successful seasons, not to mention Patrick Van Leven who thought he was on horseback and found himself thrown from the saddle.

Barak Yitzhaki knows better than anyone that his position is temporary, like any position in football, and according to what he will sell now, as a coach, he will receive offers in the future.

Yitzhaki came with a different message from him.

Patrick Van Leven (Photo: Ariel Shalom)

A job like the one he has at Maccabi Tel Aviv will be very difficult for him to get elsewhere in the country. The small clubs do not hold such a position and if there is something similar, do not pay a decent salary. He will have a hard time working in the big clubs, except for Betar Jerusalem, due to his affiliation with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He has it in the league here.This aspect is tonight a very important game for Maccabi Tel Aviv after all the points it lost, but also very important for Barak Yitzhaki's next career.



His conduct since Van Leven's dismissal as coach is very impressive.

"It's all new to me," he said twice, but seemed to assimilate well into the role.

Prepared the team excellently for both games so far and also won praise from the players who say: "What Patrick has not taught us since the beginning of the season in four months, Barak has done in ten days."

Sharan Yeni said of him that he learned a lot from Paulo Sousa and Paco Eastern and that the players are very pleased with his positive attitude to the game.



Yitzhaki came with a different message from Van Leven.

He asked the actors to dare, to express themselves.

Just like his character as a player on the field, so were his messages.

He once said he sees football differently from others.

Even in important games he will not think of football as a world of life and death, but as a world that has many more show motifs.

The most important show he has to direct tonight at Bloomfield and the fruit of its result he will take with him many more years to come.

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Source: walla

All sports articles on 2021-11-07

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