Israeli national team players celebrate qualifying for the quarterfinals of the World Cup (Photo: Israel Football Association Instagram page)
At the age of 32, Ben Bitton agrees for the first time to a one-on-one interview and to open his heart about what he has been through in recent years. "I never felt the need to be interviewed," he says, "not something anti-like like people who don't want to. I was never exposed to the media or extroverted, I always preferred to speak through the field. I was always appreciated for the professional part, I preferred to be in my corner."
You finish a chapter at Hapoel Tel Aviv, the club where you played in youth and to which you returned after quite a few years
"I grew up in Hapoel Tel Aviv. When I graduated as a teenager there was a strong team, the defenders were Canada and Bonder, it was hard to get a place. I was on loan for three seasons, I started in Ness Ziona for two years and then a year in Upper Nazareth and then Hapoel Be'er Sheva acquired me. I arrived in Beersheba at a relatively good time, Barda had just returned, Buzaglo had arrived, we were runners-up with Elisha and it only got better and better until we took the championships."
Championships, Cups, Europe. Did you believe you would achieve this with Beersheba?
"Everything came true in Beersheba, even more than I dreamed. Everything you dream about quietly when you go to bed - I achieved and even more. Had amazing seasons. We took the championship after 40 years, the whole city and the crowd were very thirsty for it and there was a crazy outburst of emotions. There was a very tough struggle with Maccabi Tel Aviv until the last round. After that there were already second and third championships, achievements in Europe, trophies... We were really at the top.
"In the second championship we felt incredible superiority. I don't want to sound arrogant, but we felt that whenever we wanted to attack a bit it would come - and that was in the season of the European campaign with the last 32. The third most difficult championship and a lot of things happened to us too. The incident that Elinav Barda had when he stopped playing was traumatic for everyone. We went through a lot of obstacles but we took the championship by quite a large margin, it was very exciting."
Always remember the miss against Celtic in the Champions
League qualifiers"It's not just Celtic, Maribor was a bigger miss. We got a comfortable opponent and we were superior, we won the first game and needed a draw in the second and lost. Against Celtic we missed the first game when we lost 5-2. In Israel we got back to business, we led 2-0, we dominated, Turner was shaking in this game, Ruddy also missed a penalty and we lacked a bit of luck to do that."
What characterized Beersheba of those years?
"It all came together. There was a powerful team on other levels, in every position on the pitch we were very, very quality, very strong, very physical, very connected, a good team. It all connected with the audience and Turner. Players like Ugo and Wakama had incredible physical superiority, that's part of the point - to hurt outsiders who are above the league. It helped us in Europe as well, Tony would come to play in Europe against monsters and they couldn't move him, he was exceptionally strong."
Every moment is crazy, great moments that you take for a lifetime but a championship is something that until you experience it you don't understand, something that is second to none. You can't describe the feeling when you win games at San Siro or Southampton, a win that was even bigger than San Siro. It was a huge achievement against a Premier League team we went through. We believed we could, we felt we were standing up well and not inferior, but still, going through teams in England or winning at the San Siro - these are the most powerful and accomplished games I've ever had. In Milan I was very excited, when we led 2-0 a few minutes to the end Hoban handed me a long ball, I went into the middle and gave a chip on the left that hit the lintel. To this day, it sits in my head what would have been if it had gone in. People also remind me of that."
"In the second championship we felt incredible superiority." Biton (Photo: Yossi Tsifakis)
The obvious question is who is bigger, Behar's Hapoel Be'er Sheva or Behar's Maccabi Haifa?
"I really think it's hard to compare. Everyone has an opinion, hats off to them too. I think this season's Haifa might be compared. They did something great with a championship in the Champions League group stage season and you have to appreciate. I think Haifa in the two years before this season was not as good, less strong, but this season with the two foreign defenders they brought and everything that connected there they had a lot of physical strength, it helped them in Europe as well and you have to know how to praise them."
What is Barak Bahar's secret?
"Anyone who has been with him will tell you that what stands out about him is the power of his management. He knows how to manage the team, he delegates authority, he lifts up all the team members, gives them a platform and the feeling that they are equal. He also knows how to run a dressing room of stars. People think it's not a problem to succeed in a strong team, but where there are a lot of stars there are a lot of egos and problems and you have to manage it. Beyond all this, he understands football, tactician, brave... He has all these qualities, but the main thing is the ability to manage people."
You and John Ugo were cat and mouse, you bickered quite a bit
"It's John, anyone who knows him knows he's very sensitive. He fights a lot, there's no player at the time that he doesn't fight with, it's not from a bad place, he'll fight with you and then hug you, he's an amazing guy and we're still in touch to this day. We had all kinds of little ones, he had it with half a team, but a lot of things didn't come out for us. There were a lot of events that stayed inside the club, 99 percent didn't come out and that's part of the success. You have to say good words to the level of management of the club, Assi Rahamim, who was the CEO, would guard the system, we would call him the fire extinguisher. His presence would calm people down."
There was momentum for the players to go abroad, do you feel like a miss?
"The big opportunity was after the second championship. I really wanted to leave, I have a European passport and I felt it was my time, but at that time in Beersheba they wanted a lot of money for me and it's not easy to pay a lot of money for an Israeli right-back. In Europe, they are not waiting for a right-back from Israel. It didn't work out, but I believe everything is for the best, I signed a long-term contract in Beersheba, I was rewarded well, I played for the national team. You can't get everything."
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"Anyone who's been with him will tell you that what stands out about him is the power of his management." Bitton with Bachar (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
The beginning of the coronavirus was also the beginning of the end for you in Be'er Sheva, with the cuts and Alona's
departure"It's a black story for me to this day. I never told my side of the story. A lot of things came out that weren't true, the audience got the wrong information. There was a Corona period when no one knew what was happening, who was against whom, at the very beginning of the Corona. The club decided they wanted to cut back, and Assi Rachamim asked several players to come to Alona's house and sit on a cutback structure. I didn't want to come, but Assi asked me personally and I didn't want to say no.
"There were five players in Alona's house, along with Assi, accountant Nir Katz and a few other people. They explained the situation to us, and it's important to be clear - we said we were coming to cut back and come for the club from the first moment. The meeting was on a Wednesday, we were told we had until Sunday noon, a four-day deadline to organize all the players to cut 15 months ahead. A considerable amount of money. It was something unprecedented in the world, all the teams asked until the end of the season and in Beersheba they asked for 15 months and an answer until Sunday - an ultimatum. They said it was either all or nothing.
"Something didn't feel right. Why the stress? Why this shape? There were a lot of opinions in the group, go convince foreigners to sign a year and a half ahead when you cut them 40 percent, nothing was easy. We are football players, we don't understand contracts and law. We decided to hire a lawyer to represent us in front of the club, so that we would know what we were signing and how to act, and they painted as if we had taken a lawyer behind the club's back.
"In a meeting with Alona and the entire management team, at her house, I said that we wanted to hire a lawyer to represent us as a group and also on the contractual level. The voices were no problem, it's legitimate. You can ask Assi Rahamim, everything was in open conversation, nothing was behind his back. We went out, we said we'd talk to everyone and think, and then after a few days we read in the media that we had taken a lawyer behind our backs, that we didn't want to cut back.
"On Saturday night you called Assi and I said, 'Assi, we need more time. Three days is a crazy situation, give a little more time to sit on things and we'll try to reach a compromise that will do good for everyone.' He told me 'no,' which we have until tomorrow afternoon. I saw that it hurt him to tell me that, I know it wasn't his decision and we just didn't agree to it. Not everyone agreed to sign and from there we would be a dance of demons, especially against the senior officials and those who were at the front. That's why, by the way, I didn't want to be at the front in the first place.
"I will never forget before a league game, we sat in a dressing room and quotes came out from a senior Israeli football official that we told Alona in her house that we are not interested in cutting a shekel and that on our part she should come up with the youth. Things just reading them was so delusional and detached from reality. We all respected Alona so much that we wouldn't dare talk to her like that. We are all grateful, respectful and appreciative of her to this day, it was so surreal how things came out of me and it hurt and hurt personally. From here, tension was created, Alona announced that she was leaving, and this spilled over into the personal aspect. The crowd was incited against us, my wife was heavily pregnant and she was cursed on social media, and it really disappointed me. We took a trophy at the end of the season, but in the end here my chapter in Beersheba ended, and it's a shame that's how it ended."
"The club didn't connect with Donis. I've had better coaches." Bitton in a Maccabi Tel Aviv uniform (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
"I'm very sad to come to Turner and hear boos, I've always given my all for the club. I only have good things to say about the crowd, the city, the club, the people. But people were incited by what happened and also the move to the great rival Maccabi Tel Aviv. It wasn't that they told me they didn't want me, but there was a feeling of exhaustion on both sides. The energies since the cutbacks accompanied us and there was a feeling that we had to say goodbye. Of course we cut wages until the end of the season, we didn't have a problem to start with, we knew we would come for the club, we just wanted it to be in a different way. Not in the ultimatum and not in the decision between now and now to cut 15 months ahead."
Then you moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv, there were bad energies around you there
"I really wanted to succeed at Maccabi Tel Aviv, it's a huge club. I arrived at a problematic time, a time of corona, I didn't experience the audience at all and I don't know what happened to them. The start was good, I played in the Champions League, it was an amazing European campaign - we reached the Big 32 stage and I played in qualifying and group stage. I also played at the beginning of the league. The person who coached Donis at the time, who frankly a lot of players didn't connect with. The club didn't connect with him, not professionally, not humanly, I had better coaches. There's also my part, I had an injury and after I came back I didn't play. In my character I can't not feel a part, not play and not be dominant because I get sad and bad things happen to me. I won't stay to say I'm at Maccabi, as soon as my soul isn't good I go and move to Hapoel Tel Aviv in January."
Einbinder and you made the big change, you got the respect of kings
," Dan at that time talked to me a lot to come and that was one of the reasons I agreed. By the way, I am also happy that he has now received a contract for another season, he is an asset to any club, Hapoel did wisely to keep him. People don't realize that beyond peak ability in the last season, he's a tremendous character. At the time he was talking to me, there were a lot of voices telling me not to go, 'They're below the red line and can be relegated.' Moving to Hapoel was an excellent decision for me, also a kind of closure. It always sat in my head that I wanted to go back to Hapoel in some way, because of that, as soon as there was an offer it really winked at me. It's kind of satisfying and accomplished to come back through the front door, I'm happy with the decision I made."
Tell us what was there when you arrived
"The situation was catastrophic, I was shocked. There were lots of kids and a very messy group, with no belief. We were 5 or 6 points below the red line - in January it's a big gap. There was Corona and the amount of crowds was limited, it was a very big challenge. This half season was accompanied by great tensions. First time in my career that I'm struggling against relegation, it's so difficult and stressful, you're constantly going through thoughts and things that you've never gone through before. In the end we made a huge turnaround, we reached the cup final, it was a tremendous six months. The following year we had an excellent season compared to Hapoel in recent years, with a top play-off and one game from a ticket to Europe."
Then came the final
season"We did an excellent year and a half and expected to get to the last summer and leverage it. We thought they would take this squad, keep whoever is good and bring the right reinforcements because there was a good way. There were young people who did excellent work, such as Doron Leidner, Osher Davida, Stav Lemkin, who immigrated from the youth... There was a balance between the young and the old, there was a way that benefited everyone. We expected them to continue it, the summer came and they made a revolution, they released players who did good things for the club, sold young people. Veterans have become something that should not be respected, players have heard since the summer that they are not in the plans, have not received credit. There were players who did a lot in football and got almost no chances, strong players in the dressing room as well.
"Once you involve 2-3 youngsters every season and make them develop in balance, they contribute to you and you to them. Once you bring up 8-9 players under the age of 20 and throw them into the water, you do a pho actionSo. You also hurt them because they're not as good at this stage, and you also damage the fabric of the team. You hurt its ability, Hapoel Tel Aviv is a club and a crowd that wants success. Add to that that they didn't harm Israeli procurement or foreigners – this year there was a team that wasn't good enough, not balanced, that didn't work in the right way, and these are the reasons for the failure."
"We did an excellent year and a half and we expected to get to last summer and leverage it." Biton (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
You could feel it from the summer with Boxa-Medicine-Nisanov
"I can say that actors are neither suckers nor stupid. Everyone has felt the tension since the summer between people at the club, that's one of the reasons it didn't work from the beginning. It was the first time I went through three coaches in a season. It's not a good experience, everyone learns, but you don't want to end up in a situation. You also feel that something didn't screw up and you have a part in it too, everyone in the club is in the same boat and feels that something is wrong."
The one who collapsed was Stefan Marinovich, who just came with a decent
resume"I think he came from a bad start, the crowd was against him from the beginning. And I think we'll leave professional ability, he didn't understand the mentality of the club how big this club is, that any loss of points or loss has to burn in your heart. After every game when I don't go I take it with me, I'm embarrassed to leave the house, I've had days this season when my heart hurt - and it sometimes felt like people didn't understand the mentality and it works alongside them. Before Marinovich there was Shatkus, a foreign goalkeeper who had an excellent time at Hapoel Tel Aviv, a man of life. It's not like you replaced him with an Israeli and earned a foreign place, you gave up on a foreign goalkeeper who spent five years in Israel and brought in another goalkeeper who doesn't know the mentality and isn't connected."
Let's talk about you this season, after the game with Sakhnin towards the end of the season you became a kind of scapegoat for the audience
"I don't like to use these terms. All the last two and a half years Hapoel's audience has been amazing, you can't complain about it, it has years and years of lack of successes and is supportive. Everywhere on the street I am appreciated, grateful, kind words, even now that I am not continuing at the club. Still, there was a time, for which I may also be to blame, I am in my character so committed and it hurts me to lose games, I had dozens of times in those two and a half years that I played with shots and was not fit because they asked me and needed me. Maybe I was wrong, because when you go up like that you lose the sharpness and it's not the same ability and the audience was disappointed. In a season like this, everyone gets criticized and that's okay. Maybe I absorbed because I'm a dominant player. Against Sakhnin there was a kind of bitterness that everyone accumulated about this year. We won 1-0, the opponent didn't get into situations, I'm a defender and it was strange that there were so many complaints. But that's okay, it's part of football. Beyond that, it's clear to me that if I talked more to journalists, gave more attention, even on social media and connected with the audience, it would work in my favor. But I don't regret it for a second, I can't be a hypocrite and play the game, my whole career I've worked off the field, all the coaches gave me credit and held on to me because I was good, that's my story."
Against Ironi Kiryat Shmona you didn't play, what does it look like from the sidelines?
"In the first half it was horrendous. Red, 2:0 behind, you see black in your eyes, you're out and you can't help. But I'm glad it ended well. What would happen if we didn't compare? Wow. I can't say in retrospect, but if we had lost to Kiryat Shmona it would have been bad, I don't know in what situation we would have ended up in the game against Hadera."
You went through a difficult story with the abuse of your child by a kindergarten
aide, it's currently in court so I'll explain what's allowed. More than a year ago, on my birthday, my wife and I were sitting in a café and getting a call from someone who works at the campaign headquarters, she said she had heard help about things happening in my daughter's kindergarten. From here we began to find out details, all the parents got organized and discovered shocking details. We also saw a video of the events, my daughter was one of the worst cases of abuse, physical and mental, she was pressured to stay awake, pushing, humiliation. When I saw the video it was hell for us, it also hurt our personal life, what goes through your mind is something I don't wish on anyone. The punishment here in these matters is very problematic and we are fighting for it to be different. I hope that the courts will do justice and deter them, these abuses exist in every corner and more and more cases are being discovered all the time, it is incomprehensible".
Ben Bitton next season, is there still a chance of an offer from Hapoel?
"I think my story at Hapoel Tel Aviv is over. I was 7 years in Beersheba and two and a half years in Hapoel felt like 5. When you're a dominant player in Hapoel you take on a lot. It's a big club in a tough time and mentally it's very difficult. People don't understand what it's like to be in relegation battles with a big club - and not once. I feel like I need new energy, the club feels that way and that's fine. I'm looking for the next challenge, to show my qualities and have fun. Abroad? Everything is open, I still have it, but it has to be something right for me and my family. I would be very happy if that happens."
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- Hapoel Tel Aviv
- Ben Bitton
- Hapoel Be'er Sheva
