Hapoel Petah Tikva fans celebrate promotion to the Premier League (Assaf Bilgori)
Idan Vered celebrated his 34th birthday and sixth wedding anniversary on the eve of the holiday, so the blessing "twice because good" was very appropriate for his holiday. Six years ago, when he got married, his wedding anniversary should have fallen on the final of the State Cup. In the semifinals, he lost in Sammy Ofer with Beitar Jerusalem to Maccabi Tel Aviv 2:1. This was Beitar's closest in recent years until last week.
Among his friends at the wedding stood out Masai, then after a season as an assistant coach at Hapoel Kfar Saba. We remembered Masai's presence at the wedding in our conversation with Idan Vered on his birthday. "Masai is a close friend of mine and I am not happier about his appointment as coach of Maccabi Haifa. I'm sure it will do good for both sides. He's a real football man," Vered said.
If I were a close friend of his, I might have warned him about the huge shoes that Barak Bachar leaves him.
"Anyone who came would have stepped into huge shoes and it's not easy, but because it's Maccabi Haifa and because there's such good management and a huge envelope, it will be much easier for him to enter and integrate, and that's precisely why he took a good step. For them, it's better than bringing in a foreign coach with his own methodology that needs to change everything."
On the other hand, because of all these concerns, a fourth consecutive championship will be bigger than Behar's three.
"Totally agree with you. If he takes a championship it will be much bigger than anything, partly because the last time there was such a streak was 60 years ago. It's very difficult to create more hunger and make changes to the squad after three championships. When I participated in the 2010/11 championship with Maccabi Haifa, in the summer there was a sense of the end of an era and from the whole squad there was only me, Eyal Golsa and Yaniv Katan, and that was it. At the time, Tomer Hamad, Gustavo Boccoli, Eric Bandeau, Masilela left. Since then, every year they've rebuilt, and every year ten players have come and gone and you've seen what happened, and how difficult it is to produce a good skeleton. Maccabi Haifa needs to preserve the existing skeleton in order to make it easier for the essayist."
"I'm football sick and want to play football." Vered in Hapoel Petah Tikva (Photo: Danny Maron)
Idan Vered's season was very volatile. He started another season at Hapoel Tel Aviv, whose owners were looking for someone to take the burden from them, and along the way they continued to throw excess weight from the faltering hot air balloon. At the end of January he made a very dramatic move to Hapoel Petah Tikva from the National League and returned with them to the Premier League after 8 years.
"At the beginning of the season, after Hapoel Tel Aviv's best season in the last ten years - we finished a point from Europe - I told them that if they wanted to take another step, they should keep the skeleton. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and I was told I was done too. In the end I did stay, after they started the season with 2-3 losses but it was the first time in the summer I felt I was not appreciated. I did have it in my head that in January I had to rethink."
So why didn't you leave already in the summer?
"You don't leave a big club so quickly. You say to yourself: Let's see what happens by January. We have one of the weakest squad in the league, and I'm sure I'll get the chance and I'll help. It really was, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance except for one game, which I was good at, and I was told that from now on I was running. But that didn't happen. I realized that in January, no matter what happens, even if they are below the red line, I have to make a change."
Every sensible person understands that they wanted to get rid of your contract.
"Yes, I know that was the case. I gave up money in the summer too, but I'm a football patient and want to play football."
But it's a predictable end, I don't know why you insisted.
"As long as they didn't come and tell me that, I believed I would get a chance, because I believe in grass and football. Maybe I should have made the move in the summer, but in hindsight, it's good that it happened that way. There are a lot of crossroads in football and things that aren't just about you, that in the end everything that happens is for the best. I probably should have been out for half a season and it would be hard for me to have a good time from January to May."
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"I believed I would get a chance." Vered in Hapoel Tel Aviv (Photo: Maor Elkeslassy)
To your credit, you haven't been to many teams in your career, only big clubs - including now Hapoel Petah Tikva - and almost all of them have won a title this season. Maccabi Haifa Championship, Beitar Jerusalem Cup, Red Star put Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League.
"Every club I've left, I've left with fun and I wish them the best. I know how hard it is and how much hard work it takes to get a degree, which I'm happy for Haifa and Beitar too."
Tal Ben-Haim was relegated to the National League in the summer, but returned to his youth team. You were relegated to the National League for a kind of unknown for you, a brave step.
"During my career I had in my mind that I would reach the age of 33 and play in the National League because I am a football patient and I have no ego. Some say that no matter what, these players won't go down. I knew that Hapoel Petah Tikva was a club with a huge crowd and history, but only when I came and experienced it did I realize how much. I remember playing in front of them and there was a crowd, even in the stable in 2008, but only when you're there do you realize that every home game is a sell-out of 9,10-17,18 people. It's something I didn't know and I'm very glad I came there. I had two good offers in January, from Hapoel Petah Tikva and Maccabi Petah Tikva, and in my perception I live from an audience, even with a little less money. They also told me that they only experienced failures, but I trusted myself and the way they were building there, headed by Avi Yechiel and Ofer Teslapapa. The crowd and the history and the scale of the club, that's what did it for me."
And a group of fans. Feel it there?
"The truth? I don't feel it as much right now. I do know that this is a model that is only gaining momentum in the world, especially in Israel, something that is good and healthy. I love, in every field, people who take their destiny on them and do something. Look at the way this club has gone from <>/<> to today. It is a strong and healthy club. Obviously, the spearhead is the senior team, but behind that there is very thorough management. It's a great place."
"Another step on the way to the goal." Idan Vered (Photo: Danny Maron)
The Premier League is a different opera.
"Obviously you played something completely different about it, but I'm not in favor of coming and saying it's going to be difficult, even before we arrived. It might even be easy. It's clear to me that this is not a national league. I've only played 12 games in the National League and I don't really know. It's not that you don't go up a league with a team without a crowd and without tradition. We will bring 9,000 easy people every game in the Premier League. When there's a crowd and there's pressure, there's no chance that in the Premier League we'll come and cancel or move a season. That's not the case."
So top playoffs?
"I personally come from a place where I come every week to win. I've never been to a club where they say: a good draw, we'll stay in the league. Don't see anything else. I don't come to play for a draw. Obviously it will be difficult until the last second but I think well and positively. Football in Israel also needs Hapoel Petah Tikva to take a stake. It should be remembered that Maccabi Netanya, which was promoted from Leumit, also took time to reach Europe and reach the cup final. Hapoel Jerusalem also went through a difficult bottom season. Our next step is one more step on the way to our goal – to be at the top of Israeli football, as this club deserves."
Next season - it should finally be added - Ofer Teslapapa will reach the Premier League.
"I didn't know Ofer until January. This is a professional, a very thorough coach. You know that when Avi Yechiel came there as CEO, he asked who was the most successful and winner coach in the National League. They told him that Ofer has a 73 percent success rate in the league. He offered him to come, and within two years he built something and changed the DNA of 9-10 years that was completely opposite: not successful, relegated to Liga A, experienced the dismissal of coaches. There's something special about him. He is very demanding. Even when I came, he didn't make any assumptions for me, and every training session took me to the limit. Both myself and the crowd and the players are very happy that he finished the pro and will be with us in the Premier League because he deserves it and he deserves it. I believe he will be the same in the Premier League."
With all due respect to Hapoel Petah Tikva's six championships between 1955 and 1963, for years it hasn't played in our mouths, a team that is largely unknown to Premier League fans. It is obvious that Idan Vered pull out one name and give it a presentation.
"I came in January and after two training sessions all my guys from the Premier League and my family asked me, who is the player who stands out the most and if we get promoted, who will stay. I told them that we have a home player, a defender named Matan Gaucher, who can play at the top of the Premier League. I foresee a bright future for him. He's fast, strong, professional. Within a year or two, we could even be in Europe."
Come on, the glitch. Who do you choose first for the national team after the naturalized retire: Matan Gaucher or Autumn Lemkin?
"Stav is also very talented and humble. I hope they both play together for the national team."
"The miss of my life." Rose and Red Star fans (Photo: courtesy of those photographed)
In the 15/16 season, after 5 years at Maccabi Haifa (which paid Beitar Jerusalem 900,60 euros for him), Idan Vered moved without compensation to Red Star Belgrade, where he played for six months, ten games in total in all competitions. In the derby against Partizan he sat on the bench next to Luka Jovic, for whom Real Madrid will pay €70 million to buy him from Frankfurt. There's nothing like Vered tipping the star's new coach, Barak Bahar.
"This is the miss of my life. In all the years I've played I've had a good time, I've won trophies and I've played and been a part of, and I've also made an impact. I hear in Israel that Bachar moved to Serbia and it's not really a leap forward. So Serbia is a much worse league than Israel, less interesting and less competitive. The Red Planet is another order of magnitude. Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv are not even half of that. Its budget is 80-9 million dollars. In Israel, only people dream about it. To say he made a mistake and left? As one who has seen what it is, I laugh. If in Israel they say that Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv have on the order of half a million fans, in Red Star - and it's not just Serbia, it's all of the former Yugoslavia - it's 10-70 million fans. It's morbid. They are a regular in the Champions League every year."
"Barak took a huge step. When you come as a foreigner to Serbia, which has crazy talents, there is not much time and you have to be in the here and now, but I was not above the level. In the end, I can only complain to myself. Whoever was with me then moved on to Liverpool, Lazio, Porto and Napoli. The market there is psychic, there is no time for acclimatization. Nor did we have to stage European houses, where it's a disaster. My mind was to go there, after Nemanja Vidic's agent, Pali Ramdani, saw me score goals against Schalke, Maribor and Steaua Bucharest, and said that from Serbia it would be easier to get to Spain, England and Germany. I wasn't actually good enough. Red Star is really a club of the size that Barak Bachar doesn't really know where he's coming from, especially now that they have a group stage and every game is 80,<>-<>,<> spectators."
One responded to Maccabi Tel Aviv's courtship, and the other did not. A rose with Shechter (Photo: Bernie Ardov)
You said about the Red Star that it was a miss. Is there another step you regret?
"I don't want to make summaries. I have a few more years. Looking back, everything I wanted, did, arrived and fulfilled. Everyone who reaches the age of 34 says if and if."
Do you have any mother?
"I had a lot of passes and crossroads that maybe if I had acted differently I would have had more titles or more goals. If I look back then by the time I was 22-23 I was already closed in the Premier League and a light Spanish league, and suddenly I had two shoulder surgeries and at 24 they said I was retiring. And now, if it's been 10 years and I've continued to play at the top, I'm grateful. I could have been much less. In 2017, I was with Itai Shechter at home. Phone from Jordi Cruyff. "Don't sign for another 3 years at Beitar, come to Maccabi and take three times as much money." They said, 'Of course, there's no question.' I was 27-28 years old, I said to myself: How am I going to do this to the audience? I'm a captain. I stayed for more difficult years with Moshe Hogeg and for less money. Schachter did, and went on to take two championships with Ivich. And I was told, 'Go, you're done here.'"
"As you go, you don't know what's going to happen. At 34 you don't think about football like you did when you were 19 or 27. There's a puzzle, and everything works out as it should. There are so many things in football, in general in sports, that every day I do training, I say thank you and enjoy it. That's how I see it. I can tell you that the miss that hurts me the most is the penalties with Maccabi Haifa against Genk. What I wanted was to be with Haifa in the Champions League. And I was close to a penalty shootout to that. Every time I see a Champions League game, I say to myself: Wow. Besides, I achieved everything. I am at peace with myself and even more complete, with the path and with the person in me and what I radiate outward. That's what everyone remembers at the end. It's more than just another goal and another title."
Team?
During my time in the national team on the wings and under the striker, even when I was at my peak, there were 7-8 players who made psychic careers such as Yossi Benayoun, Gili Vermut, Lior Rafalov, Tal Ben Haim, Eliran Atar, Maor Buzaglo, Omer Atzili Tifa and of course Eran Zahavi. It was very difficult to get to. I was two or three years old and only played twice. Every minute was really hard. There is a difference in names but today there is a draw which is the easiest in history and with all the new rankings and the Nations League, it becomes easy to arrive. Once you had at home Spain and Italy, it was impossible. Today we have a once-in-a-century chance."
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