Maccabi Haifa upgraded its foreign roster this season in such a way that in the plans for next season, professional manager Gal Alberman would like to keep all six of his players in the squad. The club has trouble remembering when there were six players who made such an impact on and off the pitch.
"It's almost perfect scouting work," the club said. "Alberman, as a professional manager, and other scouts and analysts under him, worked with Barak Bachar and adapted to him exactly what the team needs, that's the whole story. It may sound easy, but it's rare in Israeli football."
Maccabi Haifa's foreigners played a combined 13,167 minutes, which is a good testament to their contribution. In fact, this is the second-best output in the league after Hapoel Jerusalem, whose foreigners were on the pitch for 15,218 minutes in a significantly shorter squad, especially since Haifa's two defenders, Daniel Sundgren and Pierre Cornou, were injured and absent for extended periods.
Daniel Sundgren. Donated his part, photo: Maor Elkeslassy
Hapoel Jerusalem's foreigners contributed a combined 15 goals, Maccabi Haifa's yielded 20. By comparison to the rest of the league, Maccabi Haifa used six foreigners, more than any other team, although some teams replaced some of their foreigners in January. Hapoel Haifa, for example, played a total of 10 foreigners this season, with significantly fewer minutes than their city rivals, only 8,293 minutes.
Winning output
The division of goals among Maccabi Haifa's foreigners is: Charon Sherry scored 8 goals, Frantzdi Piero 7, Abdoulaye Seck 3 and Dylan Batubinsika 2.
If you look at the column of goals, there are few foreigners who scored more than those of Haifa. Danilo Esperia and Ion Nicolaescu contributed a combined 32 goals for Beitar Jerusalem. George Jovanovic of Maccabi Tel Aviv scored 15 times, as did Sherry and Piero combined. Perhaps that's why the only foreigner at Maccabi Haifa who might be sold is Pierrot. If and when that happens, the club will look for another foreign striker. The offensive defenders in green contributed a combined 6 assists, 5 of them by Corno.
Abdoulaye Seq with Ali Muhammad. The brake is wanted in France, photo: Bernie Ardov
As far as the professional staff is concerned, this is an almost exact division according to the position on the field. "You can produce more," admitted the team's players, "although there are things you don't see in the statistics, but you look at the dry data and there everyone has room for improvement, foreigners and Israelis alike, except maybe Omer Atzili."
It is also possible with 7
with an eye to next season, except for the defender in Tobinsica, on which there is a sale option for 1.3 million euros, all the other foreigners are signed. The club will make an effort to keep Seck and Cornou, who have contracts for one more season, but they are attracting a lot of interest overseas, in more senior leagues, including the French First Division, where they know the two well.
Barak Behar. Thanks to the scouting department, photo: Maor Elkeslassy
Along with Maccabi Haifa's great desire to retain the excellent players who arrived from overseas, it is important to remember that other players, such as Ali Mohammed, Mavis Chibota and Nikita Rukavica (naturalized) and goalkeeper Josh Cohen (Jewish) are a great force and none of them occupy the slot of a foreigner.
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All this is compounded by the fact that the Football Association is considering the possibility of increasing the number of foreigners in the league to seven, with five or six able to play at the same time. Some league teams, including Maccabi Haifa, would support such a move. With such great success in this area, you can also understand why.
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