Only a few people know this secret, but the largest museum of private collections of Juventus and Italian football is not in Turin or even in Rome or Milan, but rather in the peaceful seat of Ramot Meir located near Rehovot.
Here, in the museum founded by Itay Saad, a veteran Juventus fan in Israel, you can find rare items that will be able to excite every football fan, young and old - starting with the original gloves of the legendary goalkeepers Dino Zoff and Gigi Buffon, through the balls of the 1982 World Cup finals, World Cup 2006 and Euro 2020 and including the shirts, shoes and captain's armbands worn by the greatest footballers in the history of the Italian league - Boniparti, Del Piero, Platini, Shira, Viali, Zidane, Peruzzi, Nadved, Tevez and many more.
You can find it all right here, only about 4,000 kilometers from the Allianz Arena in Turin.
After driving through the dirt roads of the Moshav fields, we arrive.
Everyone who meets Itay Saad, the owner of the house and the owners of the museum, is immediately welcomed.
One of Saad's favorite things, who greets us with a shirt of Gianluca Vialli, the Juventus legend who passed away this year, is hosting viewing sessions of his favorite team's games.
For three years now Saad has been hosting the team's fans once a month to watch the game together at his expense.
Itay Saad
The architect, photo: Liron Moldavon
Every guest, old and new, receives a warm and loving hug from him, but this evening is a special evening and not only because Juventus is playing against its bitter rival Inter in a battle that may decide the fate of the championship, but because tonight I have one special guest with me - a fellow fan of the team Amit Shani 16 He returned from the captivity of Hamas.
In the previous game against Inter about a month and a half ago, Amit Second was still in captivity.
Itai Saad, who heard about the young fan's story, decided to take action and fly to Italy with a delegation of Israeli fans of the team who called to return Amit along with the other abductees to their home.
The Israeli fans held rallies at central sites in Turin and Milan and even entered the Derby d'Italia wearing shirts with the name of Amit Shani emblazoned with the number 16.
To the joy of Saad and the rest of the fans, Amit returned from captivity only a day after the game in one of the last attempts to free the hostages.
Today, only ten cycles later, the circle is closed and the two are sitting side by side enjoying pizza and fine Italian football.
second colleague
The event in his honor, photo: Liron Moldovan
"A colleague was released only a day after we returned from Italy," recalls Saad, "we saw the pictures of him being released and I was just moved to the point of crying. To be honest, I believed all the way, so I always thought about the meeting we would have as soon as he was released, but of course only at the moment when it really happened, the wheels in my head They started working and we started embroidering this meeting with Amit's family in my museum - a place I set up so that it would be a warm home for every brother in the family of Juventus fans in Israel, including Amit."
From the point of view of Nir, the father of a friend who came with him to Ramot Meir this evening, there is nothing more natural than holding this meeting together with 150 other fans of the team: "The meeting with Juventus fans seems natural and desirable to us," he explains to us while wearing the shirt in question with His son's name, "They were excited with us when Amit returned and wanted to share with us the joy and relief that come with his return. We all wanted to experience even one evening of an exciting and uplifting event after all the beatings we suffered, so we agreed to hold this meeting."
"We received with joy and excitement the gesture of the Juventus fans in the previous match against Inter", Nir recalled, "they adopted Amit into their family and saw him as a son, flesh of their own flesh. It is of great importance to raise awareness of the issue of the abductees all over the world. Amit himself was exposed to the fans' tremendous gesture immediately after that he returned from captivity, for him it was also very exciting and also a bit strange to see everything that was done to help free him and the other abductees."
Juventus fans at the event yesterday, photo: Liron Moldovan
About two hours before the game, the fans begin to gather.
They came here from all over the country to cheer on their team and to admire Itay's impressive collection in the museum.
Tonight, these 150 complete strangers form a kind of one big family in a tent erected near the museum to protect them from the rain.
Here you can find fans from Katsrin to Kiryat Malachi, from Kiryat to Ma'ale Adumim.
Children, adults, simple people, hightists and even an expert cardiologist named Professor Yehuda Adler who has trouble explaining to us in words how the love for Juventus affects the heartbeat.
Juventus fans.
From all corners of Israel, photo: Liron Moldovan
The game was decided in Inter's favor by an own goal by Federico Gatti.
In the end, the cruelty and disappointment are also part of the magic of Italian football.
The members of the Juventus fan family begin to disperse towards the vehicles parked on the sides of the orchards and fields of Ramot Meir with their faces radiating disappointment along with great hope that the season is still long and Juventus will still be able to finish it in first place.
The Shani family also returns home, not before Amit bids farewell to Ithi, the father of the fans' family.
Nir, Amit's real father tells us that this coming April he will fulfill his promise and take his son to a big game of Juventus against one of its biggest rivals, Fiorentina.
He says that Amit's biggest dream is to watch Juventus win the Champions League.
The old lady with the big ears lifted the trophy for the last time almost 30 years ago, but if a second colleague who survived over 50 days in the hell of Hamas captivity believes that Juventus is capable of doing it big already in the near future, who are we to doubt that.
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second colleague
Returned from captivity by Hamas, photo: Liron Moldovan
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