"The crowd was bloodthirsty, we were in mortal danger"
The horror game in Iran ("Jews received threats on their lives if we win"), the avoidance move ("I have already concluded at Maccabi Tel Aviv") and Maccabi Jaffa ("I will get to their games nationally").
Moshe Onana, one of the most prominent symbols of the 70s, recreates a rich career on and off the field
Asher Goldberg
03/06/2022
Friday, 03 June 2022, 15:40
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"Many years have passed, but the memory of this experience is still difficult. It was in 1974, the Israeli team at the Asian Games in Tehran, the final against the Iranian team. Despite the friendly rule, the great hatred for the State of Israel has already erupted there. We opened with huge victories over Malaysia 3: 8, the Philippines 0: 6, Japan 0: 3 and Burma 0: 3. There were five days between the victory over Burma and the game against Iran. All Tehran dealt with this game, the local media inflamed "The winds are against us and only demanded victory. The Jews of Tehran received threats on their lives if Israel wins."
The speaker is Moshe Onana, one of the great symbols of Maccabi Jaffa and one of the most prominent players in Israel in the 1970s.
On September 15, 1974, as a member of the Israeli national team, he does not forget: "100,000 jealous fans filled the stadium several hours before the whistle. There was a fear of death among our players and our delegation. "To, Rosen, Garlic, Damati and Feigenbaum, but the whole anti-Israel story and the apprehension affected us.
They scored a strange goal in the first half.
When I came in in the second half, their brake opened my head wildly without the referee's reaction.
"I scored a goal that was disqualified by the Indian referee, a goal that for some reason does not appear on the game tape that I have."
A huge symbol.
Moshe masturbates at Gaon Stadium with Maccabi Jaffa players (Photo: Maariv, Adi Avishai)
Onana has 14 games in the team and eight goals - all against teams from Asia, those against which Israel no longer plays.
"My first game under coach Edmund Shmilovic was against Argentina, the last was against Romania under Switzerland. The exiles were against Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, teams from Asia that were weak in some, but there were also great teams like Burma and South Korea. We had the judges who went against us. "
You carry with you frustration from the World Cup qualifier in Seoul against the South Korean team.
"Very true. It was in the qualifiers before Germany in 1974. We easily beat Malaysia, Thailand and Japan in the tournament and in the early stages there was a 0-0 draw against Korea. The deciding game was again against South Korea for the right to a decisive game, against an ocean team. "Their legendary Cha Boom con gate that ousted us. The pain and disappointment were unforgettable."
"In the last three games under Dovid, I felt he preferred other attacking players. After the friendly game against Romania, I took my feet off and never returned to the Israeli team."
But Switzerland did hold you, protect you and closed with you a few years later on a move to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"The Football Association took my move seriously and demanded that I be put on a disciplinary committee and sentencing. Dovid intervened, dismissed the disciplinary committee and said that the decision to leave was a mistake but he respected it. And agreed with me financially. "
After 16 years playing in the seniors of Maccabi Jaffa, Onna was supposed to wear yellow.
The move at the end of the day was torpedoed, and instead of Maccabi Tel Aviv he found himself in Bnei Yehuda.
"Everything closed with Schweizer. I was sent to a nightly final meeting with Yitzhak Asa from Maccabi Jaffa and with representatives of Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Maccabi Israel Center. There Asa got cold feet for some reason. "At the age of 30. Dovid tried to help and was unsuccessful. Those who came into the picture were Avi Philosoph and an elite company, who paid $ 50,000 to Jaffa and I moved to the neighborhood under coach Shlomo Sharaf."
What was it like playing in the neighborhood?
"I played for Bnei Yehuda for about three years. In the middle first season I suffered an abdominal muscle injury. Later I experienced a painful relegation under Yaakov Grundman and in the 1984/5 season we returned to the top league under Leon Konstantinovsky. Towards the end of the season I moved to several games to save Ramat Gan. At the age of 36, I became a player coach at Hapoel Beer Yaakov and here I retired. "
Onana's Bakery - Then and Today (Photo: Maariv, Reuven Castro)
Moshe Onana (Photo: courtesy of the photographer)
Onna was born on January 13, 1950 in Jerusalem.
"We immigrated to Israel after the establishment of the state from Sofia in Bulgaria. We were sent to a tent camp in Pardes Hanna and from there to Jerusalem. Father Yaakov wanted to be with his friends the Jews of Bulgaria, so we moved to Jaffa. Today I have a bakery in Beer Yaakov."
How did the football thing start?
"My father was a youth player in the Slavia Sofia team. In Israel he played a central role in the young Maccabi Jaffa. As a child in the 1950s and early 1960s, the place I spent every day was the Maccabi Jaffa Stadium. "Maccabi Jaffa in the 1957 final of the State Cup against Hapoel Petah Tikva in Kiryat Eliezer, remembers my tears when we lost 2: 1".
Schneur believed in him and raised him to adulthood.
"One day the youth team where I played a training game against Maccabi alumni passed the Yarkon from the third division. Schneur saw me score four goals until the half. "In the spotlight, of Maccabi Jaffa against Hapoel Petah Tikva of Nahum Stelmach. I played well and the coach hugged me at the end."
And it has a sequel.
"One Saturday morning I got to the field early to see a boys' game, I was sitting in the stands. I saw Schneur with our former player Miranda, they saw me too. Schneur told me to go home and get to the alumni lunch at the Machi restaurant near Clock Square. I stuck to a chair. At the restaurant, he was excited and shocked when he made it clear to me that I was starting the afternoon with the team against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Bloomfield. "
Masturbation (sitting, second from right) in Herzl Kabilio's "Another Saturday of Football"
He describes that game as a dream ("We won 1: 2, the first goal was mine"), but another big dream came true a year later.
"I loved and admired most of all our striker Bohus Jujosian. I swallowed every drop of his, every kick and jab and I am happy to keep in touch with him to this day," he says. "The game against Bnei Yehuda is an exciting ceremony. Bohus, who started in the squad, was replaced, I entered the game in his place. He took off his white shirt number 10 and I wore it."
But your shirt number was always 11.
"Very true, I played with number 11 because it was my dad's shirt and his favorite number in the youth of Slavia, the group of Sofia Jews."
In 1970, Maccabi Jaffa was relegated to the First Division, during a season in which Onana suffered an injury and missed most of the games.
Only a year passed, and the team returned to the national team after a dramatic victory over Hapoel Ramat Gan of the ex-Zion Models.
Masturbation scored the winning goal.
"They were in first place with 49 points, we are in second place with 48 in League A North. Bloomfield was full, outside thousands of other fans were waiting for the result.
Ramat Gan stopper Avraham Lev was sure the ball was coming out, models at the Ramat Gan gate went out towards the ball, but I decided to try to catch the ball.
"With a chance of one in a million, I stretched my leg forward, the ball I kicked bounced on the grass and went into the net, the celebrations of national immigration on Jerusalem Boulevard looked like a championship."
Mixed period.
Masturbation with Ehud Ben Tovim and Shlomo Sharaf in Bnei Yehuda (Photo: Maariv, Adi Avishai)
At the age of 21 he received the Captain film ("When Motzi Leon returns from South Africa he got the film back").
He did not have much money from Jaffa, and as was the custom of many athletes at the time, he also set up a sports shop, in partnership with his late friend Herzl Kabilio.
"After my release from the IDF, I went around for a period without employment.
Maccabi Jaffa in its capabilities paid pennies to most of its players.
We were very far from the stories of the Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv players.
I opened our sports shop in Jaffa with Kabilio.
Later we opened a Borax bakery together.
After 4 years in the sports shop, where many footballers came, I realized that I was not meant to be in the trade.
We parted ways, I in Borax, Kabilio in the sports shop. "
What about the new Maccabi Jaffa, Kabilio Jaffa?
" Very exciting, I was twice the coach of the team and I wish them success.
I come to almost all the team games and that is how I will continue to do in the national league next season. "
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Israeli soccer
Super League
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Maccabi Jaffa
