Another cantor for the date: On the correct appointment of Alon Hazan as coach of the Israeli national team

Yossi Benyon's choice of coach of the junior team for the senior position over a foreign candidate with an impressive resume was not made just because he deserved, but because he was the most suitable.

So what if even the coach who knows the system from the inside, takes responsibility and connects to the players will fail like all his predecessors?

Moshe Boker

27/04/2022

Wednesday, 27 April 2022, 14:45

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The professional manager of the Israel national team, Yossi Benyon, at a press conference after the dismissal of Marco Belbul (Photo: Photo: Niv Aharonson, Video Editing: Gilad Manheim)

For the first time the Football Association has a national coach who is not under the definition that has accompanied us for decades: 'Next in line'.

And maybe it happened because this is the first time that the national team coach was not chosen by activists.

According to all the parameters that guided the decision-makers in the association, until recently, there was no chance that Hazan's questionnaire would be appointed as the team's coach.

Not even by default.

It's not because it's unworthy, not because of a professional and thorough examination conducted by the decision makers, it's simply because of fixation, because of the norm, because everyone has followed the easiest, simplest path, and most of all the most accepted by the media.

And in the reality introduced here, Hazan would not have been elected.

It just does not meet the outdated and unwritten criteria that were here.

He did not take a championship in Israeli football.

Neither is the state cup.

In a rather surprising move, Hazan's appointment as national coach did not make anyone raise an eyebrow.

Suddenly, a coach without titles and achievements in Israeli football, one who is not connected to the big guns in the activist establishment, becomes a legitimate, worthy candidate and perhaps even wins a consensus.

This thing alone, is already a good reason for optimism, maybe this time also looks something else.

More on Walla!

"I remember us at 12. It was clear to me that a questionnaire would go the furthest"

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This time also looks something else?

Alon Hazan (Photo: Danny Maron)

Alon Hazan can be satisfied.

Beyond the fact that he won the most important position in Israeli football.

Hazan was chosen for the position only because the decision-makers, led by Yossi Benyon, believed that he was the most suitable man to serve in the position.

Benyon, the team's professional manager, did not come from home with this decision (as has happened in previous times), Benyon's direction was a foreign coach.

It is advisable to shatter here two opinions which accompanied the first days after the appointment of Benyon.

Benyon's desire to appoint Roni Levy, and a budget limit for a high-level foreign coach.

Both cases are incorrect.

Many estimated that the candidate Benyon wanted was Roni Levy, but whoever was in the know knew that Roni Levy was not in the game at all.

at all.

Contrary to popular belief, Oren Hasson, the association's chairman, gave Benyon a very large margin of maneuver regarding the budget he was willing to pay to a foreign coach, if one was found by Benyon. A moment after Benyon made a decision on one of the candidates he considered worthy and appropriate, he decided to make a comparison with himself and Hazan. The cantor had no chance, not even the faintest.

But Benyon decided he should not settle for just the coach's resume and abilities, it was important for him to weigh a few more figures and considerations that in another, more normal country, the additional considerations he put into the mixer in mind, would not have been taken into account at all.

It was clear to Benyon that if a foreign coach is not appointed, Hazan is the best candidate in the Israeli market today (after Barak Bachar signed in Haifa).

Just before Benyon informed the decision makers about the foreign coach he had found for the team, he decided to go home and sleep on it.

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• Players in the team marked the first key to success in the Alon Hazan era

• "I remember us at 12. It was clear to me that a questionnaire would go the furthest"

• Preferred over a foreign coach: Alon Hazan will be appointed coach of the Israeli national team

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Also understands the importance of the degree of adaptation to the environment.

Yossi Benyon (Photo: Niv Aharonson)

Anyone who has played and known some of the best coaches in Europe in his rich career as a player, knew that beyond fame, name and resume, there is the degree of adaptation to the environment.

And in the end Benyon decided to go for Hazan because he decided that he was not only worthy, but also best suited for the team, especially in the current circumstances.

To think carefully whether each of them is not only worthy, but mostly suitable.

All that guided him after every meeting and conversation with a foreign coach, was one thing- is he more suitable than a cantor.

For the first time the Football Association has a national coach who has grown from the bottom up.

One who was a senior player in Israeli football, a leading player in the national team, coach of the youth team B boys A, twice temporary coach of the senior team, assistant coach of the national team, and coach of the young team.

Definitely a route that is somewhat reminiscent of the leading countries in Europe.

For the sake of fairness, we were informed that Hazan was Oren Hasson's leading candidate for coaching the team.

Hasson went out with the young team to play abroad, he saw Hazan

's work, his conduct, his excellent connection with the players, and he swore by his charm.

Of the young team, and of the fact that in the not too distant future, a large part of the skeleton of the young team will be in the senior squad. But not only. What ultimately guided Benyon to go for Hazan, was his personality. And heard.

The fact that during 14 years of coaching the Israeli national team, Hazan's name was not associated with even the slightest scandal, he did not confront players, activists, did not quarrel with the media or build battalions of opponents on and off the field, stood in front of Benyon's eyes, just like Hasson.

The fact that the players in all the teams he coached were very attached to him also worked in his favor.

The players of the team are not the naive children of the young woman.

Eran Zehavi (Photo: Danny Maron)

Another consideration that Benyon, like Hasson, took into account, is Hazan's strong personality.

His ability to withstand the pressures of activists (in summoning young players to the national team), his ability to withstand the pressures of the media, not to bow to them and even ignore their minds, all of these pushed Benyon into the decision he made.

Hazan knows that the national team is not the young team, and friendly matches are not official games.

Despite the sympathy he has for the media, everyone will brush their knives as soon as he fails.

Hazan knows that everyone will examine him at every summons, at every substitution, whenever Benyon is caught with his cell phone in his ear during a team game or whenever he goes down halfway to the locker room.

Hazan is not a child.

He has already passed and knows every corridor in Israeli football, is well acquainted with the secrets of the locker room, and also knows up close how the media machine in Israel works.

And he also knows very well, the senior team players are not the naive kids he has coached so far.

Everyone there is a tiger, nice but dangerous.

Everyone will always smile at him, until they find out they are not in the lineup.

Or were not summoned to the faculty at all.

Hazan is not one of the coaches who slanders his players in closed conversations, he does not sell them among journalists, even those who surround him, in his character he is one who knows how to connect and unite a locker room, take responsibility and especially not impose responsibility on others.

By the way some of the team coaches had similar data to his and all of them and they failed.

Hazan's test may be fascinating.

His failure, too, will completely erase all statements of getting out of the box and recalculating a trajectory.

Hazan's advantage is that he knows all the holes from which the mice come out.

The big question is whether Hazan will be able to utilize and combine all the experience, knowledge and personality he has, to a place where they have failed greater than him.

• sport

• Israeli soccer

• Israeli national teams

Tags

• Israel's national team

• Alon Hazan

• Yossi Benayoun