Battle of Heritage: What will Eran Zehavi remember in the Netherlands and what is the next goal?

The enormous expectations despite the unconventional transition, camping and change, overcoming the robbery affair and settling for a fight for consolation prizes.

Against Maccabi Tel Aviv (19:45, Sport 3) the Israeli star will still try to make a mark on PSV, and signal that he is ready for the next challenge

Inbal Manor

17/02/2022

Thursday, February 17, 2022, 12:30 p.m.

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Article by Sharon Davidovich ahead of the meeting between Eran Zehavi and Maccabi Tel Aviv (Sport1)

For the second time in a year and a half, this week Eran Zehavi strengthened the image of the "loyal soldier."

He insisted on making it clear - and it's not a trivial matter when you are interviewed on the official website of the club where you play - that leaving PSV was on the agenda in January: "There were offers, I talked to the club about it and we thought, in the end we decided to stay until the end "The decision to stay good for my career because I started something here, and in a club like that, if he wants you then you want to be in it."

The first time was after the violent robbery trauma his family experienced in May.

No one in the world would blame Zahavi if he left the Netherlands and did not look back.

Zehavi chose to stay to help PSV finish in second place.

This action changed quite a bit the attitude towards him.

In three months, Zahavi will probably finish the Dutch chapter in his life.

He will try in the time he has left to leave a team mark in the form of winning a trophy or a dream campaign in a conference league that will begin with a meeting with Maccabi Tel Aviv tonight (19:45, Sport 3), but it can already be said: he won.

He again came out strong from an almost impossible situation.

The resume was surprising, as was the salary.

Eran Zehavi (Photo: GettyImages)

Zehavi's transfer to PSV was exceptional on every scale.

An Israeli pioneer.

Who came from China.

33 years old. This is not a profile that exists in the lexicon of the Dutch luxury club.

Zehavi came with receipts - years of psychic numbers at Maccabi Tel Aviv, the Chinese league and the Israeli national team - and also with an impressive list of recommenders in a form that included, among others, Jordi Cruyff and Peter Boss.

"He is a winner, a leader and a scorer. Not the best striker I have worked with, not the fastest, the biggest, the most physical or the strongest, but he is a huge scorer," said Boss, claiming that Zahavi can score 25 goals a season in the Dutch league.

PSV fans have seen in their lives huge pioneers like Romario, Ronaldo, Rod van Nistelrooy and Matthias Kazman, but somehow the combination of the extraordinary deal and the data and recommendations with which Zahavi came, created a crazy buzz of expectations.

"Why Eran Zehavi can immediately become the top scorer in the Netherlands," was the headline of an article in the prestigious magazine VI.

And regardless, there was also the salary issue - the second highest in the club after Mario Getza.

"By PSV standards, Zehavi earns a very high salary, so understand where the expectations and excitement came from around his signing," explains journalist Tim Van Dwayne.

Zehavi was perceived in the Netherlands as the man of Roger Schmidt.

Or rather, one of several.

Even a new coach who brings in players of his own is something that the Netherlands are not used to seeing and emphasizes for them the weakness of the technical director John de Jong.

When things went on PSV less well professionally, Schmidt and his players were kidnapped.

The media knew how to draw two camps: the old ones versus the young ones.

On one side, Zehavi, Mark Van Hinkle, Philip Max and Mario Getza and on the other side, Daniel Mullen, Moe Ihtarn, Pablo Rosario and Denzel Domperis.

The youngsters, all players represented by Mino Raiola, were sold last summer, while the veterans strengthened their grip.

If in the first season, Schmidt kept a 4-2-2-2 formation with Zehavi alongside Malan, in the second season Zehavi (when he was healthy of course) became more established in the striker position.

The lineup more suited his abilities and preferences.

The problem was not the lineup, Mullen's selfishness, the criticisms of skeptical past players or the situation the Dutch media tried to paint.

The story is bigger.

More on Walla!

Tonight: PSV against Maccabi Tel Aviv (19:45, Sport 3)

To the full article

More on Walla!

• A sequel novel: The love story between Eran Zehavi and Maccabi Tel Aviv

• Who will dress up as Zahavi?

  3 keys to Maccabi Tel Aviv's game against PSV

• Golden Madness: Maccabi Tel Aviv has sold more than 23,000 reciprocal tickets

• Eran Zehavi: "Maccabi Tel Aviv gave me a lot, maybe I will go back there"

• Yitzhak, 72, bought a used car - and was stabbed for NIS 200,000

A new coach bringing in players of his own is a rare sight in the Netherlands.

Roger Schmidt (Photo: GettyImages)

Zahavi alone was not enough to close the gap with the powerful Ajax.

Just as his unimaginable number of goals and the records that are broken one after the other were not enough to lead Guangzhou R&F to the title or the Israeli team to a big tournament.

In fact, after many years of being the story, around which the whole system revolved, Zahavi has reached a point where records are of less importance.

He came as a big name to a big team that was hungry to win a significant title.

This has not happened, at least for now, but to Zahavi's credit it can be said that he knew how to adapt to the situation in the maximum way.

"He was looking for himself at first and was also injured," Bolo Zandan said of him a year ago.

"He is an experienced striker who has scored a lot of goals in the past. People will say it was in Israel and China, but he still had to score those goals. You have to see how he trains. He knows what he wants. He always adds extra after training. He trains like an animal. "It reminds me of Frank Lampard who would stay after training with a bag of balls and kick for a goal. It's not surprising that then things are reflected in the game. When you invest in yourself, it pays off."

The Dutch have learned over time to recognize and appreciate the uncompromising professional gold.

The sweeping winner.

The loyal soldier who remains even after an impossible situation.

"In the last year and a half, there has been a sense of mixed feelings among the fans. Some are happy with it and some are not," says Van Dwayne.

"There are fans who expected more from him and I can understand everyone. After all, he should be given credit for his dealing with what happened in his private life. No one can know how he would have behaved if he had been in his shoes. So yes, Zahavi could have given more, but "Everything has to be taken into account. This season, the young people who stayed at PSV appreciate him very much. He has always been serious and professional and has made himself a significant asset for the team."

The robbery was a turning point in relation to Zahavi.

He was praised for loyalty and dealing with a situation.

The attitude towards him changed despite the fact that the group situation did not move an inch.

Assaf Cohen, the Dutch football expert for Sport1, mentioned this week in a series of tweets that PSV has failed in almost every major game since the beginning of last year - in the battle for promotion to the Champions League against Benfica (with a huge miss by Zehavi), in the battle for survival in the Europa League against Sociedad and in the top fights against Ajax, Feyenoord and Alkmaar.

Even when it's closer this season to Ajax in the table, it's not really competing.

And yet, in all the hustle and bustle and perhaps belatedly, Holland caught Zahavi.

A turning point in relation to it.

Golden after the robbery (Photo: screenshot, from YouTube)

Zahavi has been quite busy in recent years with his legacy, narrative and the question of what will be remembered of him.

He left for China for legitimate economic reasons and left China as one of the most influential foreigners in the history of the league which at its height attracted top-notch players from the world.

He set records for himself and broke them - a record for goals for the season in Israel and China, a record for a foreign player in China and the king of all-time team goals.

When he left Guangzhou he was looking to do something they had not done before.

A destination whose success will silence its critics.

Those critics who insisted on reminding him that he had not reached heights in the major leagues on the continent.

How will Zahavi be remembered at PSV?

Depends on who you ask.

Winning the Dutch Cup or especially the Conference League in the first year at the factory can paint the memory in shades of pink.

A European title is applicable to the PSV spotlight and to the Dutch, who see themselves as the inventors of beautiful football, global attention is an important thing, but still a consolation prize.

The reality is that the group super goal has not been achieved.

So for PSV fans, Zehavi is currently a player who played in a less successful period of a glorious club looking for his way.

Another comma in history.

How will Zahavi remember the period?

He marked V for a challenge he was missing and came out strong.

The numbers (26 goals in 61 official appearances in all competitions) were there.

They are always there.

Only for the first time in a long time, it's not a matter of numbers.

For Zehavi, the challenge is no less important and he met it.

He moved from China's comfort to the pressure of a distressed luxury club, towards the end of his career, experienced injuries, corona and family trauma - and remained the same dominant and influential golden.

He stayed on the planned route and his status did not fade.

On the contrary, in the summer he will again be able to choose for himself which challenge excites him more.

The grand finale written in books?

Eran Zehavi at Maccabi Tel Aviv (Photo: Berni Ardov)

As Zahavi himself said, there were suggestions now as well.

In the Netherlands one was reported from Olympiacos, but to go to a place they had already been before?

For the team that has this year's championship in its pocket?

It's not golden.

There was an attractive offer from Dubai, but the challenge was lacking.

The MLS is always in the background.

It's the ultimate challenge - to conquer America Zlatan Style.

But for Zahavi there is another challenge that could be no less great.

To return to Israel, to Maccabi Tel Aviv, to enjoy the status of God and under pressure and expectations, and the age that does its thing, to do exactly what you are expected to do - to run the league.

Ignite the imagination.

Look here in 2022 as it looks in 2016.

To succeed where even Berkowitz, Revivo and Benyon failed.

This will be the Grand Final.

The punch line.

A happy ending to a good story.

legacy.

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• PSV Eindhoven

• Maccabi Tel Aviv in football