10 assists were enough for Omar Atzili from Maccabi Haifa to end last season, as the top scorer of the Premier League.
Jordan Shua, when we are only in the middle of this season, already has 11 assists, more than he achieved in the previous two years combined, and his leg is still bent - so what wonder they gave him the flattering nickname "Master Chef".
To understand the upheaval that Shua is going through, you have to go back in time a little over a year.
The coach of Beitar Jerusalem at the time, Erwin Koeman, was on a constant collision course with the striker. The Dutchman did not like his behavior, the lack of seriousness. He suspended him several times, until he decided that it was necessary to part with the player, and that it would be better if he went out on loan, although the management was not enthusiastic about it .
"There was no demand for Jordan," Beit Vagan recalled this week, "only MS Ashdod and Bnei Yehuda wanted him, and he said he was not a player for such teams and that he would not go down to the national team."
Jordan Shua in action.
Suddenly the talent proves itself, photo: Alan Shiver
This low point, it is estimated in Beitar, was the first that made Shua realize that he had to undergo a change, but the road there was not smooth. The coaches in Beitar had just changed, the financial situation of the club was unclear, and the promises of Shua's former agent, Dodo Dahan , because he is going to take it out to Europe, were not realized.
The striker was almost destroyed by this situation, and at the beginning of this season he got into trouble again.
Shua was suspended and faced a disciplinary committee after he did not show up for training, without informing anyone.
In a conversation with the management, it was made clear to him by the owner Barak Abramov: "You can sign a contract waiver and leave."
This moment shook Shua, and led him to the final turning point.
Jordan Shua
The token fell to him, photo: Kobi Eliyahu
Shua did not imagine, after two years in which he received a warm hug from the previous owner, Moshe Hogge, that the new owner did not fight for him.
The token fell.
From that incident, Beitar estimates, Shoa began to arrive among the first to practice. "There were once or twice when he was late, but he made sure to send a lot of messages to the team manager, to apologize and show that he cared," Beitar says, "He took himself in hand." .
No longer first to last
Along with the personal change, there is also the huge professional change that Yossi Abouxis made with an actor.
The coach decided to change the position in which Shua plays, and moved him to play on the wing instead of in the center of the attack.
At Beitar, we have also built patterns of play according to which Shua starts on the wing, then cuts to the center to find Ion Nicolescu and Danilo Asperia, the team's top scorer pair. In his new position, he scores less, but brings out his passing ability more. "Jordan Shua has Seeing a game and passing at a European level," says a Beitar official, "in this position he looks for the pass more than the kick, and that's why he cooks so much."
Jordan Shua celebrates.
Great numbers, photo: Alan Shiver
The change is not only expressed in assists (first in the league) or in key passes (number 1 in the league with 51 of these), but also in defensive work, closings on the line and other things that are less noticed in statistics.
At Beitar they say that every time the fitness trainer commented on the unflattering GPS data, he had a constant joke: "I'm first from the end", but in recent months, he is no longer last in the GPS indicators, but has moved to a good place in the middle with looking up.
On Shabbat Shua he will meet Bnei Raina, and hopes to continue leading the team as he has been doing so far.
If he maintains this ability, Alon Hazan and Yossi Benyon will no longer be able to ignore him, and will need his time in the national team in March.
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