Maccabi Haifa announced Saturday evening at a special press conference that coach Masai, 37, will coach the club's senior team next season.
Yankele Shahar announced at the end of the match against M.S. Ashdod: "I came to announce that we have a new coach. We agreed with Masai to lead the team next season. The recommendation of our professional director, who already a few weeks ago said that he was in the process of examining all kinds of candidates."
"As far as he was concerned, the recommendation was already for Dego. We tested the ability of the new coach throughout the year and he satisfied everyone at the club. That's why we accepted Gal Alberman's recommendation. The person who will lead us will be Masai, who had a very nice season with the youth team."
Shahar continued: "You also thought about Ronnie Levy and he took three championships. Eric Benado also made the leap from youth and did a nice job. The fact is that we failed with all the foreign coaches who were here. Other groups too. You can't ignore it.
"Naturally, things are very easy to follow and there is wall-to-wall information. This information was brought by Gal Alberman. It's not easy for coaches to come and check, to process a lot of information other than dry statistics. That's why we went for Masai. He knows the DNA of the club. In every position at the club there is someone to help him, so we are not afraid. I have no doubt that we will help Masai succeed in his role, otherwise we would not have taken this step."
Barak Bachar and Yaakov Shahar, Cinematography: Alan Shaver
Gal Alberman, Professional Director: "Once again, I would like to thank Barak Bachar and his team. The cooperation with him has borne very beautiful fruits and also laid the foundations for a good and promising future. Following Yankele's statement, I will briefly describe the process. As soon as we realized that Barak was about to leave, we convened a board meeting where I strongly recommended promoting Masai."
"At the same time, we made the decision to embark on the journey and looked for additional candidates. I met with candidates in Israel and abroad and after this process of several weeks, we met again with the management and made a decision to return to the starting point, stick to my recommendation, and go for the appointment of Masai to the senior team. I have every faith that Masai, who is stepping into big shoes, will do the job in the best possible way."
Alberman went on to elaborate: Alberman: "I did the coaching course together with Dego and since then I have followed his career as a coach. It is not saturated with achievements, but he faced quite a few difficulties. I truly believe that the responsibility is not just on the coach."
"If I analyze Masai's career as a coach, he took challenges and reached teams that were not managerially prepared. I agree that his career is not full of achievements. Because I followed him and we were looking for a youth coach, Itzik Ovadia and I met him mainly because we believed he was a talented coach with abilities, who needed an envelope and tools to express his coaching ability."
"He integrated wonderfully into the youth team, made good use of his team and made successes in the local and European arenas. We also thought about it in the future. We took into account the day Barak Bachar and his team left, we wanted there to be an option at home, something to hold on to and not stay with Rick."
Gal Alberman. There are those who trust their decisions, photo: Alan Shaver
"I will do everything to make the audience happy"
Dego, as you will recall, coached the club's youth team last season and won with it an impressive championship with an average of close to three goals per game.
In addition, Dego guided the green youth in the "death house" of the Champions League together with the youth teams of PSG, Juventus and the European champions – Benfica Lisbon.The young Greens beat the European champions in Lisbon and made history. Dego's youth team, like the seniors, became the first Israeli team in history to win the championship in a Champions League season.
Dego told the official website: "I'm excited and proud, thankful for the trust. It is a great challenge to continue to compete for all the titles and lead Maccabi Haifa to further achievements. We expect hard work to start tomorrow. I will do everything to make our huge audience happy."
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Masai Dego. Will need help to fit into the challenging role, Photo: Udi Zitiat
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