Road stories: Dovev Gabay with the experiences he has collected in his career

"The Mice" by Amos Luzon, Tabib's outcasts, the experiences from the Lachman and Sheiman periods, the recorded black money conversation to the strange signing event in Jaffa.

Dovev Gabay returns to the special moments

Ophir Saar

20/04/2022

Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

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Dovev Gabay promoted Maccabi Jaffa to the national league last week.

The striker has over the years gone through a double-digit number of teams and in honor of the holiday took the opportunity to recall events he has experienced throughout his career - stories with a smile that are also the mirror of Israeli football, for positive and negative.

Amos Luzon, Guy Levy, Roni Levy, Ben Bitton, Eli Tabib, Ariel Sheiman and Black Money.

More on Walla!

After 12 years in the first division: Maccabi Jaffa was promoted to the national league

To the full article

The signature was with Eran Levy at home.

Dovev Gabay and Levy at the Aliyah celebrations (Photo: Udi Citiat)

Maccabi Jaffa

"I was at Maccabi, my brother Nazareth, I wanted to leave and I asked the agents to look for a team. After one of our games in Ilut, I look at the phone and see a call from Adam Kidan with a message: 'Go out urgently, talk to me.'

I did not even take a shower, changed my clothes and left the field curiously.

As I leave the locker room, Meir Deri and Eran, two of the owners of Jaffa, arrive.

They get out of the Jeep Range Rover and say to me, 'Doveb, what's the matter?'

I did not know them, it turns out they were in the game.

I continue towards the car and they say to me: 'You do not know who we are?'.

I said 'no'.

They ask, 'Didn't anyone talk to you?'

I replied that he had left me a message but I had not spoken to him yet, and they explained that 'we are from Jaffa, we are going to Eran Levy's house to sign with you'.

"Now, I do not know anything, I have no idea. I told him 'what are you talking about?', He asked: 'Follow me.' All the conditions in Jaffa. "You see, I did not decide at all if I wanted League A, I was debating at the time. And if League A then I wanted Shimon Hadari in Tiberias, they were first in the north and Jaffa third in the south.

" I talk to my wife, she says Lee: 'Do not rush, doveb, wait a minute.

Do not sign, what is the pressure? '

I call the person and he sends me a draft contract.

I say to him: 'Man, do you stand out?'.

I arrived at Eran's house and before I entered my wife said to me: 'Do what is in your heart'.

I told her that in my heart I was going to sign in Jaffa.

Feeling good, spontaneous.

"That evening I signed, at Eran Levy's house. We were photographed and they want to send a message. I tell them 'are you crazy? I do not even have a release from my brother Nazareth, I did not talk to them.' The next day I asked for a release, they did not agree. I was released, but I put pressure on them until they realized it was impossible to prevent me. "

Gently approached Roni Levy.

Dovev Gabay in the Maccabi Petah Tikva uniform (Photo: Yossi Tzipkis)

Maccabi Petah Tikva

Amos Luzon:

"I was a young player at Maccabi Petah Tikva, one day we were not paid salaries and everyone decided not to go down to training. Until Amos Luzon came to the compound, entered the room, stood in front of everyone and said: ' "For a second everyone ran like mice to the grass, and on the descent Amos said to us, 'Salaries do you want? For every loss I fine you, you will owe us.'"

"Even then I was a young player, about 20-21. Roni Levy was the coach and we had a game against Maccabi Haifa in Kiryat Eliezer, the Toto Cup at the beginning of the year. I live in Hadera and I do not have to travel to Petah Tikva to join the bus to travel to Haifa. I wanted to ask to be picked up by bus from Olga's interchange.

"At that last training, Roni Levy is nervous about columns of 5000. He blew up the training. This is the situation: Roni and I stayed on the field, he is with his back to me. I am a boy who is afraid of Roni, but approaches gently and says 'Roni Roni' and he makes me a sign With the hand 'Go, go'. I did not quite understand so I tried again: 'Ronny, can I have a second?'. Then he was clear with the hand, 200 times signaled me to go, do not approach me, and I understood.

" , Nitzan Damari is a meter away from Maroni and suddenly his phone rings.

Roni is nervous, telling the goalkeeping coach to tell Nitzan that he is not on the roster.

Staff and I are inside.

Out of fear I am no longer able to turn to Roni for me to be picked up at Olga.

The next day I arrived in Petah Tikva by bus, Roni put me in the room and said, "I'm sorry, they forgot to let you know, you're not on the staff." Nitzan Damari was returned to the staff. I wanted to die at that moment. "

They would take him down on the way to the house and garden.

Roi Zikri in Betar uniform (Photo: Adrian Herbstein)

Beitar Jerusalem

"I was in Betar Jerusalem, I had a car from the group.

One day I was taken into a room and explained to me that Eli Tabib no longer allows driven players to drive in the car.

One of the outcasts was Roi Zikri, who lived in Herzliya at the time and had no way to get there.

I could not say no to the player, so any training when we would go up at the interchange on the way to Beit Vagan, we would drop him off and he would continue on foot to the compound, God forbid they would not see him in the car with us.

He would have arrived already after a good warm-up walk. "

"I played in Betar in the days when my father was very ill towards the end.

The hard days of my life, I had a hard time going to Jerusalem for training, even when I arrived, I would go into the bathroom before training and cry, take everything out.

I remember that Oshri Dudai who was then the speaker picked it up and waited for me every morning, strengthened and hugged me, I will never forget it for him.

What happened from all this was that I would come out of the bathroom with bright red eyes and everyone was sure I was tired and not sleeping well at night.

I preferred to keep it to myself and replied "yes, yes, I'm tired" and other excuses, it was hard for me to share the situation.

"Sometimes players go through periods in life and bring it to the field, the audience knows nothing."

"Elisha Levy was like my father in Be'er Sheva."

Dovev Gabay with the coach (Photo: Berni Ardov)

Hapoel Beer Sheva

Guy Levy:

"I played in Be'er Sheva and we were in relegation battles. One game before the end we were hosted in Ramat Hasharon, the game ended 0: 0 and I only came in a few minutes to the end. After the game Guy Levy was interviewed and asked about the attacking game and said: 'I played with the best tools I have Another player was injured after such an interview, I came to practice the next day and said to Avi Yechiel: 'We have Betar Jerusalem one last game, I have to play.

If you don't win, you go down in the league.

Yechiel said to me: 'Go, talk to Guy', and I answered him: 'My father, I play, no matter what he says.

I go in to talk to him and even if he doesn't open up with me, I go up to the field and beat him. '

"I went into Guy's room and I said to him, 'Guy, listen, we have to talk. You chose to say these things after the interview, I'm not hurt.' He said, 'If you're hurt, I apologize.' The game is on Saturday. If you want to stay in the league, I open. I win the game for you. "He said he had not yet decided on the squad and I replied: "I really like this approach, but I will decide later.

" "On the day of the game we were taken to a hotel in Be'er Sheva.

We were in the elevator Shimon Harush, Oded Gavish and I together.

I see Guy outside the elevator and he says to me, 'Dove, sometimes life is a plan as you request,' and I realized I was opening up.

I gave a pair, we won and we stayed in the league. "

Elisha Levy was like my father in Be'er Sheva, standing behind me in every situation.

There was a whole round that I did not score and I still opened in all but one of the games.

One day Ben Bitton just came to us, was a young actor, came from Upper Nazareth with Ben Turgeman.

In one of the nervous training we had I played against him, I got a one-on-one depth ball in front of a goalkeeper and a son shouting ‘upside’.

I was so upset, I came out cursing at him non-stop, he answered me 'shut up' and Elisha told him 'Bitton, get out'.

Poor thing, I went mad at him for a few minutes, he just responded 'shut up' and Elisha tossed him.

I felt uncomfortable.

Today he is one of my best friends in football. "

"When I was in Be'er Sheva we had a game against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Bloomfield, Hapoel is strong with Damari, Vermouth. Before the game, Siraj Nassar and I drove in a car and saw that there was a match between me and Damari. NIS we will earn 4000, this is my game ', Siraj went with me, but it was impossible to put a single on it so we gave up.

In the game, I scored a hat-trick, Damari 0, I saw money from the premium, not from the winner. "

Tried to record.

Antonio Mersic (Photo: Bernie Ardov)

Bnei Yehuda

"I signed with Bnei Yehuda for three years and after a few months it was decided that me and the Croatian midfielder Antonio Marsic would be ostracized. Not part of the team, come and do fitness training on the side, do not participate in training. Out of nowhere, the hallucinatory call, he does not care what I have to say or what I ask. It was very clear to me very quickly that something stinks, that he is trying to record me and asks if I received black money from Bnei Yehuda, if I was promised or in the future. Repeats the same question about money and tries to record.

"After the call, Kfir Edri introduced me to a room in the club and told me that Marsic recorded me and played him the call. I told Kfir that I had a feeling that was what he wanted and heard throughout the recording that I did not understand what he wanted. "It's a problematic situation, and he's just recording me. There's no lower than that. I did not even talk to Marsic afterwards, he does not deserve me to get mad at him for that. He should be ashamed."

"Instead of coming and tearing us out of shape, he did the opposite and made a huge profit."

Ariel Sheiman with Eyal Lachman in Herzliya (Photo: Berni Ardov)

Maccabi Herzliya

"Coach Eyal Lachman is the one who brought me to Maccabi Herzliya. We played outside in the north. They would transfer me from the wing to the wing because I was fast, and my late father hated it.

In the 60th minute, Lachman put me on the wing and let Omri Ron play as a striker.

From here to the end of the game my dad curses Lachman, runs after him from right to left in the stands and just curses him, unwilling to hear and I try to calm him down.

I'm not comfortable, I'm on the field and it's not easy.

Moroccan father, you can try to say a word, but not beyond.

It's not that I can make him stop.

"We got to Wednesday that week, Lachman puts me in the office and says to me, 'Listen, it's impossible for an actor's father to behave like that. I love you, take care of it.' I replied, 'It's not me, I talked to him, I tried to calm down.' Lachman tells me: 'You know what, you are a man, you will only play a striker for me.'

"We go up to practice after two minutes, Eyal hands out jerseys and tells me to play left wing. I do not understand what is happening, I look at him and he does not relate. After training he asks me to come in. I come to the office and he says to me: 'Do you see what it is? "You are a man. I examined you and you came out a man, you open a striker on Saturday."

"I played at the time with actors like Alan Massudi, Crystal, Crispy. In our locker room there were benches with their backs to the entrance to the room. One day Oshri Alfasi started imitating Ariel Sheiman, just as Sheiman is coming from behind. The hand to be quiet. Alfasi imitates him from every direction, even how Sheiman's hair flies in the wind in training and he tries to catch up with him. Until it peaked and Sheiman gave him a strong head from behind. "Ah, what matters Ariel, how are you?" And every dressing room was torn apart with laughter. "

"I felt alas if I was not amazing this season."

Dovev Gabay in Nof Hagalil uniform (Photo: Udi Citiat)

There are also beautiful things in football

Hapoel Nof Hagalil:

"I came to Nof Hagalil after the injury in Bnei Yehuda. Because I was injured for a long time, I signed that if I was injured I belong to Social Security and do not receive a salary from the team. After five games I was very weak and did not connect professionally. Corona and everyone is pressed for money. You see, I was zero on the field in the games I played, I went to Gil Baram and told him I needed the Social Security forms to sign everything. Gil said to me, 'See you? "Normal salaries and you will get back what you get from Social Security in the future. You are with us." He gave me an amazing feeling, I felt alas if I would not be amazing this season.

"I was at Maccabi Herzliya and we started the season not well. We lost eight games in a row, two months. Ariel Sheiman came into the room and said: 'Guys, rest assured, you now have the next salary and I anticipate your next salary as well. I trust you.' "Instead of coming and tearing us out of shape, he did the opposite and won hugely. We won the next game and got back to business. It's something rare in all of our football."

"One day he fired Lachman that season and then Shimon Hadari, they come to training and do not know who will come. Suddenly Ariel Sheiman goes down in shorts and a whistle to the grass and gives a stationary training. We did not understand what was happening, it was funny, but the truth is we won 2 of 2 with him. "

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