"I took an unfortunate step. There was no one to guide me."

52 years later, Eli Ben Rimoz does not forget the miss at the World Cup, which also cost him his professional career: "I resigned from the electricity company, I made a mistake."

The man that Uri Melmillian admired recalls his childhood in Petah Tikva and the great days in Katamon: "I went through the ball with players effortlessly"

Asher Goldberg

16/06/2022

Thursday, June 16, 2022, 5:00 p.m.

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"1969/70 and 1970/71 were some of my best years offensively. At first I scored 14 goals, later I was the king of the league goals with 20 goals before Moshe Romano, Motla Spiegler and Haim Azulai. I was invited by coach Emanuel Sheffer to the Israeli team and I was In the squad for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. I expected to play, I was in great shape and ability, but Sheffer did not give me even one minute. When I saw during the World Cup that he prefers others on the field, I talked to him and asked why I did not get a chance. "It was great. I deserved to play, but other players unjustifiably preferred the offense."

Eli Ben Rimoz, a great Hapoel Jerusalem player for generations, really thought he deserved to be a part of history.

Exactly 52 years have passed since the tournament, and he is still living the miss.

"I believed that Sheffer would give me a chance to play, because I was excellent in the long preparation training. If I knew they would not let me be an active part on the field, I really would not fly with them. I could have happily joined Hapoel Jerusalem's trip to this World Cup in Mexico .

Ben Rimoz's trouble on that team's journey was not just about football - the story was much bigger.

"I had a great job, I was the center of transportation at the Electric Company. Due to the preparations for the World Cup and the flight to Mexico, I took an unfortunate and irresponsible step and resigned. Why? Because there was no one to guide me, it was a national mission of the State of Israel. "Vacation until the end of the World Cup. It was a big mistake of mine and no one should be blamed for it."

Ben Rimoz (kneeling second from the right) before the national team game in the early 1970s in Bloomfield (Photo: Moshe Milner)

Ben Rimoz was born in France on November 20, 1944. At the age of three, the family immigrated to Israel.

What not many people know about him is that until the age of 8 he grew up in Petah Tikva.

"The family lived in the Rimon winery, where recently the houses were evacuated for the construction of interchanges and future huge buildings," he recalls. And Kaufman, against whom I later played my way as a footballer at Hapoel Jerusalem. "

The family moved to the Katamon neighborhood, where the majority were Hapoel Jerusalem fans.

"I studied at the 'Masada' school and spent most of the day kicking the ball with my friends on the gravel pitch which was our favorite football pitch."

His mother died at the age of 37. After two years his father left for the United States, joined by his brother and sister.

He was left alone, with her also to the United States.

It was not easy, but he found solace in the arms of Hapoel Jerusalem.

"Already in the youth team at the club they saw my talent as a footballer, its leaders took care of me for a rented apartment and respectable meals at the famous 'Treblos' restaurant, where I would come to dine and sign. It is one of the best known restaurants in Jerusalem at the time."

"The team's great achievement was in 1958, the final of the decade's cup for the state at the Basa Stadium in a 0: 2 loss to Hapoel Haifa. Gave me the team shirt in Katamon against Bnei Yehuda, we won 0: 2, I cooked a nice goal for Cohen. Sheffer let me play from the center of the field forward,

"There was no one to guide me."

Ben Rimoz Today (Photo: Courtesy of the Photographer)

Sheffer left and Jack Gibbons came to the position of coach.

"I loved Gibbons, who was the coach of the Israeli team against Russia and brought championships to Hapoel Petah Tikva. Gibbons improved my ability technically - not to look at the ground, to move the ball in right and left movement and to understand what was happening on the field."

This tuning made him one of the virtuoso players of those years.

"Such an ability of technique in dribbling, is an innate thing, not something like a fitness that can be worked on and improved. Today a player who passes two players or enters a long dribble into the field is enthusiastic as if he were a football magician. "Zoller, Sheinfeld and Levin and I went into the net with the ball."

His first nickname was Chozlito.

"The Spanish prodigy back then was the revered nightingale, his songs and films excited the youth and adults here. One of our ardent fans, whose name was Markets, announced in the main stand in Katamon that I was in football like Huzlito, and it caught on quickly. Many called me a 'ballerina,' they claimed. "Because the brakes and defenders who came to stop me saw me hovering over them like a ballerina ballet dance. Switching actors was a trivial matter for me."

But when you perform tricks and stunts on the court you may pay dearly.

"In the national team game against Mönchengladbach I started with a team that Sheffer placed. Already at the start of the game in Bloomfield I thought I was in Katamon and passed a ball between the legs of their famous defender Barty Foggets. He filtered something, Israel 0: 6 and remember from there the huge connection Gunter Netzer who did a football concert that has not been seen here until then. "

I thought I was in Katamon and passed a ball between the legs of their famous defender Barty Vogts.

He sifted something, and after a few minutes he came to me with a tackle, put a bomb in my legs and sent me out. "Ben Rimoz (Photo: Government Press Office, Moshe Milner)

Until 1972, Hapoel Jerusalem was not a special name at the top of our football.

"Most of the players were the result of Jerusalem with a lot of talent that was not expressed. The mentality was weak, in the games in Katamon there was transcendence, in the away games we had a hard time. Personally I was good at Hapoel Jerusalem, I had no wide horizons to look at the big clubs "I started working for the municipality in the sports authority as the person in charge of football in schools and today I am its retiree."

There were alleged claims of your financial demands.

"It was a quiet season in the league, we finished in 8th place. In the semifinals we defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv on penalties. In the final, journalists and fans asked and asked about my non-appearance due to unanswered financial demands. Spring 0: 1 from a Feigenbaum goal. "

A year later the trophy had already reached the capital.

"It was a great season for us, in the league we finished in our third, most honorable place. In the double semifinal we closed an account with Hapoel Tel Aviv, which we eliminated on the way to the final against the powerful champion Maccabi Ramat Gan.

We defeated Bloomfield 0: 2 the power of Zion Turgeman and Nahum Shema.

I have never experienced such a festive feeling in a club and city.

We were the first team to bring the trophy to Jerusalem. "

Like any Jerusalem player, he also has unforgettable moments in the derby.

"The fans expected derbies that were only twice a season. It was a kind of cup final, they knew how to recite results and scorers of every derby. I remember a derby in Katamon where we won 1: 3 and my goal. A sharp, flat ball to the corner of goalkeeper Haim Levin. "

.

Uri Melmillian also wrote in his book "The Boy From Anyway" that he supported me as a boy in Jerusalem.

The rivalry then was a different kind, not like today.

A loss in the derby left players sad at home for several days. "

In 1977 he took a break from Hapoel Jerusalem.

"Coach Amatzia Levkovich wanted me, but I wanted a refresher at another club. I had a conversation with Levkovich who agreed to my move. Together with Mahatbi I moved to Zvi Single who coached Bnei Yehuda. I really enjoyed the neighborhood with the team and its wonderful fans, it was fun there. "After Bnei Yehuda, I returned for another two years at Hapoel Jerusalem. I later had less good offers, I decided to hang up my shoes and retire from active football."

Hapoel Jerusalem arranged you financially?

"No, not at all. I could have earned more at other clubs, but there was no one to guide or guide me. I did not have the experience and wisdom in football of those days, but I have no complaints."

"Many Hapoel Jerusalem fans have a phone call of 'One, two three, Eli Ben Rimuz'." The innocence in Israeli football and Hapoel Jerusalem. "

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