You get a call from Maccabi Haifa, hang up, and suddenly Maccabi Tel Aviv calls," says a senior player agent in Israeli football.
"Sometimes the conversations are about the same players, but you hear determined and serious people. It's a shame there aren't more clubs like this in Israeli football."
This conversation perhaps symbolizes more than anything the battle of the titans of the current transfer window, which broke a record of the last decade.
The two majors together spent nearly NIS 30 million on acquisitions, including transfers and player wages, in the January window.
This is an amount that easily makes up the budget of three small teams in the Premier League for an entire season, everything includes everything - from the salary of the players on the staff to the last of the Afsnaim in the youth and children's departments.
Daniel Lesvoi speaks for the first time after signing with Maccabi Haifa
Photo: Maccabi Haifa, official website
Maccabi Tel Aviv poured close to 15 million shekels (transfers + wages), of which 9 million were just for the purchase of Raz Shlomo and Elad Madmon. If we also take into account the expected purchase of Henry Addo from the Slovakian Zilina, the amount grows to about 19 million Shekels - huge numbers in terms of Israeli football.
Maccabi Haifa spent about NIS 9 million (transfers + salary), with half of the amount going to the purchase of Lior Kasa from Hapoel Jerusalem.
Maccabi Haifa currently has no less than 29 players on the roster who can easily form two teams in the Premier League.
The long list of injured and the desire to continue the successes led the champion in the last three years to expand the staff to dimensions that did not exist in recent years.
Ben Mansford, photo: Alan Shiver
On the yellow side - Maccabi Tel Aviv's roster is even longer and has 31 players, even before the official addition of Edo. Some of these players do not get playing minutes, and the acquisition should enter the rotation of Robbie Keane on the fly.
"History says that whoever kept the best Israelis was successful," explains Eli Derix, former star of Maccabi Tel Aviv, who also served as CEO of the soccer and basketball club.
"Both teams tried to arm themselves with the best Israelis. Elad Madmon is an amazing signing for me, proven in the Israeli league with a long-term vision - the rest have to prove themselves. In Maccabi Haifa, apart from Danil Lesvoi who has receipts, players arrived who have to prove themselves."
Elad Madmon, photo: Maor Alxalsi
Lesvoi was also in the registers of Maccabi Tel Aviv due to the possibility of registering him as an Israeli player. Maccabi Tel Aviv did not try to compete for Gadi Kinda, but the biggest fight was for Lior Kassa.
The two majors agreed on his purchase from Hapoel Jerusalem, and the player chose the green shirt.
"There are a lot of ego struggles between the teams and they spent a lot of money on Casa," explains Derix, "they wanted to show that no one gives up. Maccabi Tel Aviv also wanted him, and in the end he went to Maccabi Haifa.
It was January madness here, the media inflames everything, and this sometimes leads to expenses that are hard to understand.
A lot of money is poured out, and those who profit are always the agents, but not always the clubs."
Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv have a well-oiled scouting system and a long list of names. In most cases, the names are the same on both lists, which leads to a direct, head-to-head fight between the teams - something that raises the price, as in the case of Elad Madmon. Haifa was willing to pay a million euros for The talent of Hapoel Hadera, Tel Aviv put in a million and a half and closed an immediate deal.
Lior Casa, photo: Alan Shiver
In recent years, the struggles between Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv have mostly gone to the green side: Dia Saba, Gadi Kinda, Lior Kassa and Danil Lesvoi chose the greens, while now sources close to the yellow club, as well as players' agents, testify that "Ben Mansford is exerting heavy pressure and declaring that the club Ready to invest to get stronger, at almost any cost."
This is a battle that will probably only intensify in the coming years, when the two giants of Israeli football want to dominate, take titles and participate in European events.
Maccabi Haifa passed the 100 million shekel mark this season, while Maccabi Tel Aviv has an estimated budget of about 130 million shekels, which only increases according to the purchases that reach the club.
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An official at Maccabi Haifa claims that "the signing of the young players is not an expense but an investment", while similar things are also said at Maccabi Tel Aviv. The bottom line is that these investments arouse interest on and off the field, all this when the two most decorated clubs in Israeli football are fighting head to head The season for the championship title. As it happens in practice, these successes are also equal to the power of persuasion against the top players in the Israeli and foreign markets, or in other words - control over the entire Israeli football.
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