Recap: Maccabi Haifa - Hapoel Jerusalem 0:5 (Sport1)
Harel Shalom is another one of the stories of actors who are scratching their careers toothlessly, with many points in time when he could have broken down and given up the profession. The 25-year-old defender grew up in Beitar Ma'ale Adumim, moved to Beitar Jerusalem in boys B and boys A and was released before youth. From there he went to Hapoel Katamon at the time, where they gave him credit: "I was a bit of a problem child at the time, there was a coach named Shlomi Amar who educated me and put me on the spot, I saw that the club was thirsty for young players who were fighting for their careers. At the end of the season a mental coach who worked with me recommended that I play for a youth team in the Premier League. I went to audition in Ashdod and got accepted, I played as a striker, I was Dean David's replacement and they told me that Dean would go up to the senior level and I would be a starting player. I hesitated and decided to return to Katamon, I thought this was the right place for me. I still belonged to Beitar so I had to pay to be released, my grandmother bought my ticket from Beitar for 7,500 shekels."
"My grandmother bought my ticket from Beitar Jerusalem" (Photo: Danny Maron)
"Even when I stayed in Katamon, they didn't believe I would graduate. The only one who believed in me was Golan Hermon. He taught me defense from scratch, he was my coach, my mental coach and my dad, we had a relationship at an abnormal level. In Leumit I became a left defender, there was a foreign left defender who was injured and they tried me in a training game, I was good and Lior Zeda told me he would adopt it. Since that moment, Golan Hermon has taken me and worked with me on the most basic things of defense, I'm a first-year adult and don't know what defense is. From the base, Golan explained everything to me - how to stand, how to run, how to identify things on duty, literally from scratch. When the stranger came back, I went up to play on the wing."
"At no point was it easy for me, last year when I was injured for a long time, Ziv Arie pressured me to come back too early after such a long injury and after the game he told me, 'Leave, you're weak, you don't play here anymore.' And then there's a derby and he tells me, "I'm not matching Herman, there's nothing you can do here." After that I didn't play two games and I was nervous, and Ziv told me, "You're done with me."
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"Ziv Arie pressured me to come back early and after the game he told me, 'You're weak, you don't play here anymore'" (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
"There was also a situation last season where we were after 5 or 6 straight losses before the playoffs. He came and said, 'Listen, I have no choice but to let you play. I don't know how true that is, I'm not in the National League to run you but I have no choice because everyone is not good.' He talks to me and as if to tell me that I can't play here, he lets me play and in fact tells me that I don't deserve it, these are things that I carried and because of which I also reached the fulfillment and understanding that I have to move on. I went through a rollercoaster ride with Ziv, good times that I thank him for and there were times when everything fell apart."
But this is your story and Ziv Arie's. In the farewell message and during the interview you have good words professionally about Ziv Arie, but over the years you have been like a cat and mouse.
"It's important to me that they know that both sides have exhausted each other at this stage, it's not like they gave up on me, and we also ended up so well and respectfully between the sides. But I have no problem telling the truth, I told it to Ziv too. The breaking point was when Roy Revivo arrived in January, because everyone knows that whoever comes from Maccabi Tel Aviv on loan has a commitment to playing minutes. It broke me, when you know you're competing against someone who has a minutes contract it puts the stamp you need somewhere else. When you ask questions and you're told, 'You've played enough this year,' that says it all. Every game where my name isn't on the board my heart burns inside, so tell me something like that? I want to play, to influence, to compete, even against Maccabi Haifa when they chose me as the best player I didn't start at all, I came up as a winger from the bench. I kept my mouth shut and did what I could but I felt unappreciated, when you evaluate someone you don't bring in a player with a minutes contract."
"I went into Ziv Aryeh and he told me Roy didn't have a contract for minutes, I couldn't believe it but I kept my mouth shut and left the room. I also asked to speak to Shai Aharon afterwards and asked for release, but I didn't get one. I understood that there was a minutes contract but I got the stamp after one day I heard an interview with Oren Golan that he says he doesn't understand why Hapoel Jerusalem brought in a left-back that they are contracting for minutes. He explains that they wanted Roy Revivo in Hadera, but they didn't want to commit to the minutes Maccabi Tel Aviv demanded, and there were other teams that wanted him and demanded a commitment to minutes."
"The breaking point was when Roy Revivo arrived in January" (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
Did you speak well with Ziv? You're a very emotional guy, you run away sometimes
, too," I spoke nicely. I asked to go and it's legitimate. Any other player in this situation would have fallen, it's the easiest ground to fall on but I didn't let it happen, I concentrated on football and my career until the end of the season. In the last two weeks of the season it was harder for me because I realized I was leaving after so many years and I had a real drop in tension."
How was your relationship with Roy Revivo?
"Now I sent him a message, wished him good luck and told him I love him, even when we played together on the line we had a great time, we have a good relationship, he is a great player and he is not the story here, he wanted to play."
You know, at a press conference after Maccabi Haifa, when you sat next to Ziv Arie, he complimented you on your attitude and said, "The way he conducts himself, you can't help but let him play as a defender, a winger and if you need another role", is that part of the cat and mouse?
"Exactly, a week before that he told me I wouldn't be continuing next year, he didn't like anything about training and told me I was done there. He told me many times over the years, it was part of his relationship with me, one way or the other. At some point it was already heavy on me and that's why it felt exhausted, especially with what happened this year."
"Yao is above the league. I was shocked that he signed a new contract with Hapoel Jerusalem."
This season was the best of everyone's
careers"We had a first round of 1-3 and a second round of relegation, in the playoffs we made three wins in a row and the rest losses. Goni Naor always checks points accumulation statistics that we did, he told us after the first round that it was a 3rd place point accumulation, and boom he went. Vento because of his departure was a bad second round and we deteriorated. If he had gone at the beginning of the season we wouldn't have made the top playoffs and we would have faced relegation, that's how I see it, Haifa earned it."
Is the top playoff a one-time achievement for Hapoel Jerusalem?
"I want to believe and hope for them to do it again. I have a warm spot for the club, the fans, my friends and all the people for whom this club is important. Who knows, maybe I'll come back in the future to retire there, I'll always have a warm corner and appreciation for the club for what they've given me."
This season you had two players at the top of the league - Guy Badash and Aloj Yao.
"Both are the best right line in the country, unequivocally. When we were in the National League, Sahar Brown was a good friend of Badash's, he told me about him when he was at Beitar Tel Aviv at the time. I heard that Ziv Arie wanted him, I saw his numbers at Beitar Tel Aviv, I didn't know him, I sent him a message on Facebook, 'Come to us, we're waiting for you,' and the truth is that after a month he arrived, not because of my message, of course. We quickly understood that he was a top-level player, we said it at Leumit, it doesn't surprise anyone that he's like that. No player is surprised by his status in football today."
"Is it suitable for the big 3? It will be interesting, he is really talented, in body language he looks indifferent but there is something else about him. He's a player actor. He knows how to cope, if he has to come off the bench he will do it, he went through a very difficult road until he got to this place. And by the way, Ziv Arie has a very large part in the development of Guy Badash, he improved and lifted it. Badash's departure is a blow, you can't bring him a replacement at this level today."
Yao not a miss of the majors?
"Absolutely, yes, he's above the league. I was shocked that he signed a new contract with Hapoel Jerusalem. He's the defensive player I've enjoyed watching the most in my life. I enjoy watching him work defensively, forget that he's a level athlete, he's like a cheetah, first to every ball, smart. He grew up at Inter, he has a lot of wisdom that he brought with him. I have no idea how he got to Israel and I still have no idea what he's doing here. He is in the top 4 defenders in the country along with Seck, Vitor and Savorit."
Where are you aiming?
"I'm aiming to be in a top-of-the-table team or a big club. It's clear to me that it won't be easy and I have to deal with it, and I'm ready for it. It also depends on the financial offer, I didn't earn a lot of money in my career, in the end you take all the offers and make a decision what suits you best professionally and financially. You have to remember that I'm leaving a good place and I can't go to a place where there's no order or future, that's not right."
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- Hapoel Jerusalem in football
