Eran Zehavi's affair with Maccabi Tel Aviv fans is inconceivable. A kind of phenomenon that does not exist in Israeli football. After all, EZ7 is by no means the classic Maccabist, a player who did not grow up with the Yellows at all. , Hapoel Tel Aviv, including winning a red double, but in his three and a half seasons in Kiryat Shalom, Zahavi became one of the greatest Maccabees in history.
Now, at the age of 35, the star is returning to close the circle in the yellow uniform, after six years outside of Israel.
Zehavi became the undisputed king of all Maccabi fans.
A king so powerful and powerful that even the previous and revered king, Avi Nimani, testified about him in 2016: "Zahavi has long been much bigger than me."
How did this phenomenon occur?
How years after he left Maccabi did they not stop encouraging him, supporting him, and just waiting for his return?
Well, the answer to that is very simple - Eran Zehavi has fulfilled all the fantasies of the yellow fans.
The yellow crowd cheers for Zahavi after the meeting with Eindhoven, Photo: Alan Schieber
The yellow crowd should thank Jordi Cruyff for fighting to bring in the player in the January 2013 transfer window, who at the end of that season the Yellows swung the championship plate after a decade of squabbling.
Then there was the famous derby in which Zehavi was attacked by a Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, which only made the yellow crowd realize that he had finally become one of their own, and certainly after the dramatic goal in the famous 2: 3 derby, which drove Paulo Sousa into a frenzy. , Who will run to search on youtube.
The derby with Fouad, Photo: Alan Shiver
And then there was another championship, a historic treble, breaking records that would have seemed imaginary - like breaking the record for one season, which lasted 61 years and belonged to the late Nissim Elmaleh, who scored 30 goals in the 1954/55 season, but Zehavi scored in the 2015/6 season 35 League goals, and it's not certain that in the next 60 years someone will overtake him. He served as captain of the team for one season when Sharan Yeni left. Zehavi's name.
In August 2015, Zehavi took care of Ness Plzen.
The Yellows hosted the first game against the Czechs in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, but lost at Bloomfield 2: 1.
The rematch against Victoria Plzen seemed only to the protocol, but the striker thought otherwise.
His big duo arranged a victory for the Yellows that took Maccabi to the playoffs against Basel, for a mission on the impossible border.
Zehavi's equalizer in Bloomfield gave Maccabi faith in the return match, where, in the 96th minute, the incredible miracle occurred, when Zehavi jumped for a high ball and hit his second goal powerfully, which set a huge 2: 2 and brought the ticket to the home stage.
Maccabi fans were like dreamers.
Zahavi celebrates in Plzen, Photo: Udi Citiat
These moments of gold will forever remain part of yellow history.
But Maccabi fans need to remember and internalize - their big star is no longer 26 - 27 as he was in the previous term, he may not score 20 goals either, and with a coach like Vladan Ivic, the team will probably not be "dependent" on him alone.
But one thing is for sure - he will give them more magical moments, and maybe another championship title, that's what they brought him for.
Pio-pio.
The king of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, Photo: Ami Shumen
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