"At Hapoel they took advantage of my love for the club, it hurts me that I don't have a pension"

The beginning of the career ("I ran away from the training school"), the first goal ("Dad is happy as if he scored"), the pair of revenge for the 5:0 derby, the national team ("I didn't want to play striker") and life after retirement ("At the age of 75 I still need to work").

Shia Feigenbaum returns to the beautiful moments in his playing and coaching career

Asher Goldberg

13/10/2022

Thursday, October 13, 2022, 6:00 p.m

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Not everyone knows this, but Shia Feigenbaum was born in Austria.

It was on 5/12/1947.

"After the Holocaust and the end of World War II, my parents moved to Austria and waited for the opportunity to immigrate to Israel," he says, "I was born in a hospital in the town of Heline, which was located along the local soccer field. My father, the late Israel, was a soccer player in the Jewish team there, a branch of the Hachach Vienna the magnificent

After Ben-Gurion's announcement of the establishment of the State of Israel, we went to Jaffa at the end of 1948.

The house adjoined the 'Bassa' football field, a dirt path and 20 meters separated it from the field wall.

The love for football stuck with me, I was connected to it.

The sight of thousands of fans coming on Saturdays or in the middle of the week to games in Bassa, and the voices of the fans from the stands on the field, are still engraved in the memory."

He studied at the elementary school in Neve Tzedek, on 3rd Street.

"I signed up at the age of 7 or 8 for Hapoel Tel Aviv's children's team, I came to every training session of the senior team in Bassa. The team's coach was Buchka Pelman, one of the club's greatest players in the 1930s and 1940s and a footballer for the Palestine national team. Buchka made me his assistant in the coaching and a child he brought the balls in training. I entered the Holy of Holies, the locker room of the football idols including Khodorov, Rehavia Rosenbaum, Gideon Tish, Ben Zion Tzinovich (who later became the senior missile scientist in the United States, Professor Tzin - A.G.) and others. I ran away from school To arrive two hours before the start of training to help Buchka prepare the training aids. I was in a dream, it was impossible to understand what was going on inside my soul."

One of the main factors for qualifying for the World Cup.

Feigenbaum in the national team uniform in 1969 (Photo: Government Press Office, Moshe Milner)

His model was Yaakov Khodorov: "His nickname among the players and fans was 'the flying bird', in training I didn't stand behind the goal, I was afraid of absorbing a bomb from a powerfully kicked ball, I stood near the corner. When Khodorov got dressed for a game there was a whole ritual. He put a special plaster on each finger hands, preparing the gloves for long minutes, the football boots were as polished as if they were bought that day in the store. The socks were slowly rubbed off as if glued to the foot, the shirt was always neatly inside the trousers, never outside, that's exactly how I behaved. Khodorov had a can of gel special that he brought from abroad and would apply to his hair, ready for the game."

The coach who gave him the push forward was Shlomo Polyakov, the father of the tracker Foley. "He was, along with his brother Musta, one of the stars of the 'Allenby' team of the 1920s.

I played in youth mainly as a left defender, sometimes a right defender, but always forward to the attacking side.

We had an excellent team, at the same time as Maccabi's youth team with Spiegel,

Then came the story against Maccabi Ramat Amidar.

"I was about 17 years old, a youth player in Hapoel Tel Aviv. I finished a hard training session with the youth at Bloomfield and went down to the youth's dressing room tired and exhausted. The senior team was preparing for a training match against Amidar. Amidar's captain Leon Konstantinovsky who was watching the training came up to me and said: "You want to play with us now?

"Not enough of our players came." I was ashamed to say no, I came up in the Amidar team against Hapoel Tel Aviv, I played as a defender and as a striker, I had an excellent game, and I also scored a beautiful goal for the Hapoel Tel Aviv net. I received great compliments from everyone present on the field."

The surprise came at the end.

"The coach of the youth team Emmanuel Shafer, who was present at the game, sent a messenger to Hapoel Tel Aviv and asked me to call him. I was invited to the Asian Championship. I have two wins with the youth in the Asian Championship, with Shafer and the Yugoslav Milovan Cirich."

A very rich career.

Feigenbaum in a debate with Judge Sohil Daud during his days as a coach (Photo: Maariv, Adi Avishi)

In the 1965/66 season that David Schweitzer promoted him to the seniors.

The debut season turned out to be a championship season.

"After I returned to Israel with the youth team as the Asian champion, David promoted me to the seniors, Hapoel's regular defenders were Ben Jonathan and Spozhnikov. I sat on the bench. The left defender Spozhnikov was injured and I replaced him in the position."

Then came the derby of dreams at the Maccabiah Stadium.

"In the first round in Bloomfield, we beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 0:2. They were in the fight for the championship, 11,000 spectators filled the Maccabiia field on the Yarkon estuary. I went onto the field with my knees bent from excitement. Maccabi led in the opening 0:2 with goals from Assis and Shikva, then I did A breakthrough like in the youth team, I lifted a ball to Tish who scored in front of the goalkeeper Levin. Then I broke from the right, crossed the mid-line on the longitudinal line a little, and from a distance of 38 or 40 meters I kicked a thunderous ball into the connections of Levin's crossbars, a goal from the end of the world that made the tie 2:2 It was my first goal, to this day I can still see the flight of the ball. It is impossible to describe in words what I went through, I saw my father as happy as if he had scored the goal."

In June 1966, he made his debut in the Israel national team against Uruguay in a friendly match.

"The dream of my dreams came true at the RG Stadium - to be on the team in training, in the dressing room and on the field with the players I admire.

We lost 2:1 to a clutch of their Jewish extremist Abadi.

They went on to London for the World Championship, and by the way, Abadi pulled out of the squad at the last minute.

I received great compliments on the defensive and offensive ability."

"This was a few weeks before the Six Day War.

Thousands of fans came to the game in Ramat Gan in uniform and with weapons.

I kept the Scottish striker, who scored the winning goal for Scotland, 1:2 in the 83rd minute."

Feigenbaum scores for the Maccabi Haifa network (2:15 minutes from the start of the summary)

His story with the striker position began with tears.

"Hapoel coach Yosla Mirmovich decided to give me the number 9 shirt in the center of the attack, a central striker. I started to cry, the whole team went down to the field and I stayed in the room crying. Mirmovich came back to me and asked why I was crying and why I wasn't joining. I innocently explained to him that I am a permanent member of the team In Hapoel and in the national team as a defender. There are many outstanding goalscorers and scorers in the league, and if I don't play well, Chirich will kick me out and in Hapoel another defender will take my place. Mirmovich hugged me, assured me that he would keep me in the team and in the national team and stated that 'there is no way you won't be An excellent striker, better than a defender'. I wiped my tears, went up against Ramat Gan. We won 0:6 and I scored four goals for Lufa Kadosh's net. I became a striker, my defender position was taken by Nachman Castro."

In 1968/9 he was already an integral part of the great championship.

"It was the season after the 1968 Mexico Olympics in which I became the main striker of the Israeli team between Spiegel and Spiegler. In the Olympics I scored an excellent hat trick against Ghana (3:5) and an equalizing goal against Bulgaria that sent us home after the sombrero hat lottery (which is why Yosef Dagan initiated the kicking system The decision from 11 meters - A.G.) In that season I scored 19 goals, I finished in third place after Eliezer Shlomovich 21 and Mot'le Spiegler who scored 25. The drama lasted until the last round, which we reached with 42 points like Maccabi Tel Aviv. We have an away game in Rehovot against Maccabi Shaariim. Maccabi Tel Aviv played at home against Shimshon Tel Aviv."

"That's right, we knew we had to beat Sha'areim, who needed a win to keep a chance of not being relegated to League A. Right before the game, the regular Tobolsky goalkeeper was replaced with young Avi Binyamin. We were thinking about the championship and not Sha'areim's relegation, in a stadium filled with thousands of fans. After only a few minutes I received a wild blow to the head without a ball. I went out for long treatment and was diagnosed with a concussion, I refused the medical team's request to go out. Hapoel Tel Aviv was more important to me than anything, the tension was tremendous on the field, they fought for victory."

Gogo Mordchovich's winning goal came from Feigenbaum's assist.

"The ball was about to go out, from the crossbar I lifted it to Gogo who scored. We saw on the field the sadness of Sha'arim and the joy of our fans. Maccabi Tel Aviv did not stand up to the pressure, it finished 1:1."

He decided to sell the new car he bought.

"I told the guys in the locker room about the intention to sell the car. I explained to them that after every game in Bloomfield, the fans carry me on their shoulders to my parents' house, so I don't need a car."

Shia Feigenbaum at the children of Hapoel Tel Aviv (photo: courtesy of the photographer)

He was a partner in qualifying for the World Cup in 1970.

"In the qualifiers for the World Cup, we first beat New Zealand with two victories in Ramat Gan, the first 0:4 with a pair of goals by me, and the second 0:2. The biggest rival was Australia. In December 1969 we won 0:1 from a Spiegel free kick. Two weeks later, in the rematch in Sydney , we finished with a 1:1 draw and we went to the World Cup."

"Spiegler scored in the 79th minute, I ran like crazy to get the ball out. I didn't notice that the net behind the goal was not like in Israel, it came down straight from the top to the ground. I hit my head hard in the stretched net, cut my face and nose and it hurt a lot. I came out of the net with the ball , started to bleed, but I immediately ran back to the defense to keep the score. The Australians equalized, but we're on."

There were also less beautiful moments, such as the famous 5:0 defeat in Derby in January 1970. There was a game on a rainy and cold day in Bloomfield, we played without our stopper David Primo, Brenner played in his place.

The goalkeeper was Avi Binyamin due to Bejarano's injury.

Spiegel captured a huge day with a hat-trick and Hapoel's bad day resulted in the historic defeat."

"We counted the days and hours for the rematch five weeks later.

We had complete control of the field, the ball was constantly in the direction of Maccabi goalkeeper Michaeli's goal.

We should have easily scored 7-8 goals, we only won 1:2, my clutch."

As in the 1968/9 season, the battle was again close, but this time it was decided in favor of the yellow side.

"Maccabi and Hapoel were in first and second place with 39 points. They won thanks to the ratio of goals - they had 21:51, we had 24:48. To think that if we had not conceded in the derby five, and in the return game won by a higher score, we would have been the champions. That season the top scorer There was Kish Romano with 15 goals, I was content with 12 conquests."

Spiegler scores, watch out for Feigenbaum crashing into the net

He took part in the World Cup, but ended it with a broken leg and married with a plaster cast.

"The match against Italy was in Toluca. When the Italians took the field, I looked at the shoes of the authentic Italian captain, almost 2 meters tall, in his soccer shoes he had silver cleats. Later in the game, he got into me and broke my right leg. I returned to Israel in a cast. Two weeks later I got married and they replaced it the heavy cast with a plastic cast, so that I can break the glass with my right leg."

"Their brakeman Yitzhak Drucker severely opened my head, I refused to be substituted, I played with one eye open and a lot of blood."

You are considered one of the greatest players of Hapoel Tel Aviv, the top scorer of the team and the great scorer of the Reds in the Israeli national team and the derbies.

Did it help you get by financially?

"I really didn't make a lot of money at Hapoel Tel Aviv. They at Hapoel took advantage of my love for the club, I only made money to live a little better. It hurts me, I don't have a pension. Today, at the age of 75, I continue to engage in commentary and broadcast football matches on various channels every day."

"At that time there were players in big clubs who made money, bought an apartment or two, I didn't do anything through help from Hapoel, nothing. I bought my first apartment with a big financial help from my father, loans and repayment of payments. Today I live in a house in Hod Hasharon."

still work.

Shia Feigenbaum (photo: courtesy of the photographer)

You also have a prestigious 1972 State Cup, your winning goal for the network of Yehuda Toval from Hapoel Jerusalem.

"Definitely a very exciting cup. We reached the final after victories over Maccabi Jaffa, Beitar Jerusalem and Maccabi Haifa.

In the final we played against Hapoel Jerusalem.

In the 41st minute, Yona Zelikovsky collected from the air and I kicked a volley as I know it, a ball like a magnet into Toval's net, which fell years later in the Galilee Peace War."

You were seriously injured in a game against Hapoel Beer Sheva, almost ending your career in 1972.

"Goalkeeper Yair Nosovsky Leaped on my knee, resulting in a severe ligament tear.

The club doctor Fuad Nissim stated that I finished my career as a football player.

I didn't accept it, I underwent surgery and after about five months I returned to the lineup by coach Harry Geim, against Hakah Ramat Gan. I scored a double into the net of goalkeeper Uri Nitzan, we won 1:2, Hakah won the championship, Hapoel finished second."

He did not get to play in Europe.

"We had an Austrian coach named Richard Levy, I went with him to make an impression on one of the big teams there, I scored two goals in a test match and they closed with the coach on a contract. I went to the secretary of the Workers' Council, Eduard Segal, and asked for a release. He told me that if he signed, they would kill him, he suggested that I enter to a one-year international quarantine. A signing at a club in Germany also fell through for the same reason."

"We finished the season in second place after the champion Maccabi Netanya, a season in which I scored my last ten goals for Hapoel Tel Aviv after 15 years in the seniors. Every player finishes, I felt that this was the end of my road in Bloomfield in my Hapoel. The feeling was hard, I went to the last practice and realized that the things In the lame club. The pain was great, I left my great love with tears that flowed by themselves."

Shia Feigenbaum confronts a muscle deer - 12:30 minutes from the beginning of the video

After he left, Feigenbaum played for Samson Tel Aviv, Hapoel Jerusalem, Hapoel Ramat Gan and Hapoel Haifa.

As a coach, he had a rich and colorful career at Hapoel Haifa, Beitar Netanya, Hapoel Jerusalem, Maccabi Netanya, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Petah Tikva, Ironi Ashdod, Maccabi Herzliya, Bnei Yehuda, Hapoel Beer Sheva, Hapoel Rishon Lezion, Tzafririm Holon, Ahi Nazareth, Bnei Sakhnin, Umm El Fachem, Hapoel Ashkelon, Hapoel Hadera, Ironi Ramat Hasharon and Hapoel Kfar Saba.

His coaching career is colorful and worth a separate chapter.

The tears that accompanied him as a player became folklore when he coached.

Especially remember a moment when he coached Hapoel Jerusalem, and Leon Panso from Hapoel Holon equalized in extra time at the YMCA and prevented Jerusalem from advancing. I decided to make a substitution, I ordered striker Yair Essaig to come down and I was going to put in a defender. Zvi Shirir stopped the game, signaled for a substitution, the linesman waited for Essaig who walked slowly and took a while. Because of this, Shirir signaled to the Zafarir players to continue playing, we conceded an equalizing goal. I ran towards Shirir, amid a police riot , journalists and photographers. I shouted to him why the substitution was not allowed, there is no problem if he adds even 10 minutes. The decision went to the last round in which we lost by two goals, we did not move up to the top league. I promised that I would continue with Hapoel Jerusalem, and a season later we ran over the league and moved up."

And there was also the famous fall from the shoulders, when he coached Zafarir Holon.

"The team played on the field in Rishon Lezion, against Eli Gutman's Beitar Jerusalem.

We won with a huge surprise 0:1.

One of the well-known Zafarir fans suddenly waved me over his shoulders and prepared to run towards the Beitar fans' stands. I knew that if he reached them, they would think that it was my taunting them. They could have hurt me and even slaughtered me. I waved my hands and yelled at him to get me down. He didn't hear but my wave I managed to fall on my hands. It could have been a disaster on the bumps."

Almost a disaster on the embossing

Which Hapoel Tel Aviv is there today?

"There is nothing to talk about them now, there are young talents in the team, most of whom are sold quickly. This is not the performance that the fans want to enjoy, there is no motivation and enthusiasm from the time when I played there."

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