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Israeli soccer
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Nir Klinger is right, we are really uncultured.
Now just let someone arrange a look for him
This is true of Klinger, the sports culture at its lowest ebb.
But is the man who burst onto the grass and made obscene gestures towards the crowd really the right man to complain?
About an emotion that turned into a cartoon, and a symbol that broke the unwritten law
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Nir Klinger
Maccabi Tel Aviv in football
Living Room Fellow
Monday, 08 November 2021, 10:00 Updated: 10:16
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Summary: Maccabi Tel Aviv - Hapoel Tel Aviv 1: 1 (Sport 1)
As a Maccabist by birth, the three athletes I have loved the most in life are Nadav Hanfeld, Derrick Sharp and Nir Klinger. Anyone who has gotten to see them in real time, wearing the yellow uniform at Bloomfield or Yad Eliyahu, can understand what these three have in common. They were not the most talented on the field, did not hold the most impressive statistics and certainly were not the ones who made the most money. But they were real soul players. Those who run out of fuel tank every game, over and over again. Professional athletes of the rare breed, ones that you feel are really playing for the fans in the stands, and not for the money.
When the yellow crowd wanted to cheer on Nir Klinger, somewhere thirty years ago, he did not call his name, but sang in rhythm: "Soul, soul, soul."
I remember it, against the background of what he said yesterday at the end of the derby, and it hurts my heart.
Klinger (due diligence: a distant relative of mine, whom I met once in my life - 25 years ago) signed some of the happiest moments of my life, and I'm sure Maccabi Tel Aviv and its large audience are responsible for some of the happiest moments in Klinger's life.
It just makes his stuff more painful.
More on Walla!
Nir Klinger: "Sorry for every stripe, nose fracture and glitch I did for the Maccabi Tel Aviv crowd"
To the full article
What's next, Ofira Asaig complains about trash in prime time?
Klinger (Photo: Sports 2)
One can begin to make a childish account of "who started" this quarrel. Go back to the last Cup final or further back to a break in front of the crowd that reached its peak with his dismissal from the team in 2005. It can also be argued that professionals who make money from this game have an expectation of more restrained behavior than a crowd of fans who spend money on the dubious experience known as "Israeli football". It may be mentioned that there are people who have sung much worse songs than Nir Klinger, to say the least, and they have not chosen to attack the crowd with obscene gestures at the height of local football, with the president sitting in the stands watching the commotion. Everything is so true and irrelevant. A person's right to be hurt, a person's right to express his pain in words. The same great soul he brought to the grass is the soul that ached yesterday in an interview at the end of the derby.
However, the words themselves need to be addressed.
"We live in a spoiled and uncultured country," Klinger attacked, just before announcing that he was sorry "for every muscle tear, for every broken nose, for every glitch I made for the Maccabi Tel Aviv crowd."
It is difficult not to agree with him, the state of culture in Israel, and certainly the culture of sports, is at a low ebb.
The question is whether the right situation is to correct an injustice through another injustice.
Is the man who burst onto the lawn to confront a referee and sent obscene gestures at a crowd of fans really the right man to recite a lack of culture?
What's next, Ofira Asaig complaining about trash on prime time TV?
Will Yair Netanyahu lead a panel on the level of discourse on social networks?
Eyal Golan is organizing a conference on the phenomenon of groupies in the music industry?
More on Walla!
The hypocrisy, the spin, the exciting sincerity: The network is reacting to the Nir Klinger storm
To the full article
It still hurts.
Klinger (Photo: Flash 90, Moshe Shai)
Klinger's regular defense correspondent launches, and I'm among them, talking about him being an emotional person. We love characters like that, probably in sports. But sometime his emotionality turned him into a cartoon of himself. When he informs hundreds of thousands of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans that he is sorry for every glitch he made for them, he breaks the unwritten law of separation between a playing career and what happens next. One can admire the footballer Eyal Berkowitz and think that his television character is a disgrace to intelligence. One can adore Avi Nemani the player and think that his career as a commentator / agent is all that is bad in our sports media. This is a Chinese wall that preserves the memory of the player we loved, and allows us to measure the coaching career / interpretation / engagement objectively.
Klinger's case is so extreme that he himself refused to make the separation.
He "carries that shit," he says.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that someone who has been on the safe path to the position of coach of the Israeli national team has in recent years become a professional that few in Israel are even interested in working with.
If not because of the unimpressive results on the grass, then because of the behavior.
On the pitch Klinger was looking for a striker yesterday, but the truth is that what he really needs is a mirror.
One that will show him that we are indeed living in a spoiled and uncultured country, and his face is completely the face of the country.
More on Walla!
Klinger: "We financed Maccabi."
Einbinder: "We shatter myths"
To the full article
"Dragging that shit"?
We too.
Klinger (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
post Scriptum.
I still love him, and I have never cursed him and it hurts me to be cursed.
Even if he regrets it, I thank him for every muscle tear, for every broken nose and for every glitch he made.
Not for the money, for me, the little fan in the stands.
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