"I saved Hapoel Tel Aviv from liquidation" - Voila! Sport

"I am red in heart and soul. I am the player who saved Hapoel Tel Aviv from liquidation. After the great championship of 1987/8 with coach Itzik Shneor, 1988/9 was a season of confusion. There was incomprehensible management by the Histadrut, a financially difficult season for the club and the players. The highlight was not showing up for the game against Zafarir Holon, to which the youth players were sent. Later it was decided on a kind of Italian strike and not showing up for the away game in Kiryat Eliezer against Maccabi Haifa. All the players of the first team decided not to come, they went to play snooker together.

"I was the only player among the seniors who saw the glass half full, I understood that if we did not show up at Kiryat Eliezer at all, the punishment would be clear and unequivocal - automatic relegation to League C and subsequent disbandment. I made a difficult decision, I decided to go to Haifa, I gathered a number of other young players such as Ahmed Musa, Elior Burns and other young people. We boarded the bus with only 7 players, traveling to Haifa from Bloomfield when crowds of confused fans gathered with tears around the bus. It was a quiet trip, during which I knew we would not play, but no absence will be recorded, only a foul for which the penalty is a technical loss 2 :0".

Arrears at Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Maurice Jeanno (Photo: Maariv, Adi Avishi)

Maurice Jano remembers that day, which definitively positioned him as one of the great symbols of Hapoel Tel Aviv in the 1980s.

"We arrived at Kiryat Eliezer, the refereeing team decided that there would be no game. It immediately became clear how right it was for me not to strike, to show up and not to cause the disbandment of the team, which was disbanded at the end of the season. Even earlier, when I got off the bus, I saw the young Eyal Berkovic giving me a kind of hello. He, Their huge talent at the beginning of his career, he didn't understand what Hapoel Tel Aviv was doing on the bus without the players."

This was not his first meeting with Berkovic.

"Most of my big games were against Maccabi Haifa, in Bloomfield and Kiryat Eliezer, I loved playing against them. One Saturday, two years before, the Hapoel Tel Aviv bus arrived in Kiryat Eliezer, Berkovic was still in the youth team of Maccabi Haifa. When we got off the bus, Eil approached me, asked That I would sign him on a white page. I signed him for fun. To this day, there is a lack of players with his abilities."

Jeano was born in Morocco on May 8, 1958. "I was two and a half years old when we immigrated to Israel, we were thrown into a difficult place one day, in the crossings in the south of Ashkelon in the 'Samshon' neighborhood. We were 9 children, I was number 6. Father was blind, mother a housewife. The house He was religious, and we had to lead and bring my father back from the synagogue. First I studied at the non-religious 'Habcelot' school. Later I moved to study at the religious school 'Or Ha'im'. Every now and then I ran away from school to play soccer with the neighborhood kids."

Today he is married plus 3, but to David, Bar and Oral.

He also has three grandchildren.

He owns the business 'Zhanno's Pizza', writes for Ashkelon's local 'Scoop' and is a football commentator on the local radio.

His elder brother Aharon was a prominent footballer in Hapoel Ashkelon in the sixties.

Another brother, Shimon, played for Hapoel and Maccabi Ashkelon.

"As a child I went to see them practice and play, Hapoel Ashkelon had a large crowd of fans back then in the nostalgic era of the Bokubeza and Buskila brothers," he says, "a coach named Yossi Stein, the late, raised generations of players and brought me to the boys' team, for a test training of ball control and agility .

Within a year in the boys, I was promoted to the youth team of Hapoel Ashkelon, a good team, and I was marked as a great potential for the graduates."

With the man who launched his career, Eliyahu Ofer, at Hapoel Tel Aviv training in the 1989/90 season (Photo: Maariv, Adi Avishi)

Who were the Israeli actors who inspired you?

"I was very enthusiastic about Spiegler, Spiegel, Roni Calderon, Meir Bared, Gad Bokubza, Israel Igilka and of course my brother Aharon, with whom I had the privilege of collaborating at Hapoel Ashkelon at the beginning of my journey. Already at the age of 16 and a half, I joined the senior team, under coaches Zeev Basraglik and Gadi Tselniker who nurtured me a lot."

He was discovered in the Air Force Football Championship.

"I served there in the Air Force, there was the Air Force Championship and I excelled in all the games. Representatives of different teams saw me, they were enthusiastic about my control of the ball, my quickness and passion in the game. Yanka Ekhuiz recommended that I come to practice at Hapoel Tel Aviv. But after two practices there was no continuity. I had offers Beitar Jerusalem, Maccabi Petach Tikva and Hapoel Ramat Gan".

Then came an emotional phone call from the late Hapoel Beer Sheva coach Eliyahu Ofer.

"He was a coach I admired, his call was sharp and clear - 'Get to Hapoel Be'er Sheva, from here you will advance'. After 6 years at Hapoel Ashkelon I moved to Be'er Sheva. Ofer gave me the stage, I scored goals against Maccabi Tel Aviv, against Hapoel Tel Aviv. The headlines In the newspapers there were headlines in the style of 'Yet Samson came from Ashkelon.'

As happened to many actors, his career also changed after meeting David Schweitzer.

"He approached me after a game in Bloomfield and asked what I was doing. I explained to him that I was in Be'er Sheva. He told me, 'Listen carefully, man, leave your phone at home.' /82 I moved with pride and happiness to the club I admire."

Those were other days.

"You can't believe today how it all started. I got on an Egged bus in Ashkelon, got off it at the Holon junction. This is where my training actually began. I made the way to Bloomfield by jogging, morning or afternoon. Until they arranged a hotel for me, sometimes I slept after the morning training on the bench in the room The dressing room, waiting for training in the afternoons. It should be noted that Turk, Eli Cohen Ekhuiz and others offered me to rest at their house."

The legendary manager Nissan Nissanov, Itzik and Sharon's father, arranged a passport for him.

"Hapoel went to the Intertoto games, I met them a few days later in Austria after they were in Belgium. Every game in Bloomfield or in the center of the country there was a long convoy of vehicles leaving from Ashkelon for the Hapoel Tel Aviv games, about a thousand fans from Ashkelon were in Bloomfield on Saturdays to see me and the team."

The kids recognize him, but not from football.

Maurice at "Pizza Gianno" (photo: courtesy of the photographer)

His first title was winning the Hand Cup of 1982/3 ("When we arrived at the Ramada Hotel, we heard shouts in the corridor, and talk of a goal in Hand, my age said nothing. My trophy prize was ten thousand dollars").

Three years later he won the dramatic championship against Maccabi Haifa.

"The team was preparing for the game, which was broadcast for the first time on television, at the Ramada Hotel. We left the hotel for Bloomfield with the private vehicles. It turns out that the Maccabi Haifa fans blocked my car, and I only managed to get to the dressing room very late. Haifa was a very strong, attacking and scary team, but five minutes to the end came Landau's dramatic goal, I scored 8 goals in the championship, after Eli Cohen with 11 and Sini with 9 goals."

Two years later - another championship, under Schneor.

"Major financial difficulties began at the club. The players knew how to concentrate on the championship, but the financial problems hurt us in the cup final against Maccabi Tel Aviv, we could have easily won the double, but there was restlessness in the days before. We lost 2:1."

Then came the season of crisis and decline, after which Jano stayed at Hapoel Tel Aviv.

"I knew I would continue, I am a man of Hapoel Tel Aviv. The beginning of the road was with Lilo Ofer, but a rescue committee was established headed by Yoram Overkovich, Ofer was replaced by David on Passover. The task of re-immigration was the shark's."

As always, he was there at the right place and time.

Schweitzer (Photo: Flash 90, Moshe Shai)

The final cycle of the 1989/90 season is well remembered by the elders of the tribe.

"Zafarir Holon secured the return to the top league, the fight at Bloomfield Stadium in the last round was against Maccabi Yavne with the same number of points, 52. The goal difference was one goal in favor of Yavne, it was not easy to prepare for the game against Maccabi Ramat Amidar, where we needed a better result than them ".

"At the professional assembly, David, who loved me very much, asked with familiar affection, 'Give every ball to our Moroccan, Maurice will already know how to make trouble for the exiles. Before we went to the grass, I sneaked out and locked the referees' dressing room so that the game could start after Yavne's. We scored against the exiles in the opening Ours, Yavne's goals were behind us and not at our jet pace. We beat Amidar 0:6, I scored a hat trick and scored twice. We returned to the top league thanks to goal difference, I scored 15 goals."

After qualifying back to the national league, Moshe Sinai returned from the neighborhood as a player manager.

"I continued for a tenth season in Hapoel Tel Aviv. Changes were made in the squad, we finished the season in first place in the lower playoffs, it's time to continue my career."

Then he left.

"I've seen young players come up and buy that's coming. I used to catch Yossi Abouxis when I was running backwards, now he caught me running, it was the right time for me to say goodbye to my great love. I moved for one season under David in Hapoel Ashdod, where the crowd was really impatient and I left."

Many unforgettable moments.

Zhanno (photo: Maariv, Adi Avishi)

He returned to Ashkelon for his retirement season, under coach Moshe Meiri.

"We brought to Ashkelon a young striker named Moti Kakon, a huge scorer, who returned to Hapoel Petah Tikva in the middle of the season and became its top scorer."

"Children and teenagers who meet me on the streets of the city recognize me - 'Here's Maurice, from Jeano's pizza.'

"Hapoel Ashkelon is deep at the bottom of League B and almost no one is interested now. Maccabi Ashkelon and Samson Ashkelon are in League C."

"From the day I arrived in Bloomfield, I knew that football had to save money, I took care of my family, I didn't buy fancy cars. I bought the pizza business 38 years ago with Hapoel Tel Aviv money, it's well known in Ashkelon, family members are employed there."

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