The first championship.
Yossi Kramer (right) celebrating/Maariv, Adi Avishi
"I played for Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Beitar Jerusalem, Hapoel Haifa and a little in Hapoel Tel Aviv.
In my opinion, Maccabi Tel Aviv is the biggest, most famous and proudest club in Israel.
Wearing the Maccabi Tel Aviv shirt, you feel a special sense of exaltation, a special thing that no other football team has, without detracting from the honor of Maccabi Haifa and Beitar Jerusalem. True, Maccabi Haifa has become a huge club with unprecedented strengths, but every football player I know that the most fun is beating Maccabi Tel Aviv. Every game for the opponents, including Maccabi Haifa, is a kind of preparation for the cup final. I also understand why, because I was there."
Who is the greatest footballer you played against and with?
"There is no doubt at all, the late Avila Cohen.
I have never seen a player with such class, game wisdom and understanding of the game, technique and love for the ball.
I admired Avi Cohen more than any other player."
The greatest coach of all?
"Shlomo Sharaf.
Tough, but understands his players, a coach whose entire training subject and ability to understand the game is very impressive.
Me and the players adored him, football flows in his soul 24 hours a day."
Against Moshe Sinai in the 1989/90 season.
Kramer/Maariv, Adi Avishi
Yossi Kramer was born on April 9, 1957 in Israel.
"My mother Clara was born in Romania, father Eliezer in Poland, where he played in a small soccer team. We are five siblings, two daughters and three sons, I am the eldest. I am married a second time, I have two daughters, Doreen and Noi, who repented, became ultra-Orthodox and has five children. The other two children are sons Shiran and Omer, and I have seven grandchildren together."
You say you won't win the lottery again.
"That's right, I've already won the biggest prize, my current wife Panina, my light and that of the beloved family that she unites and leads."
As a child he lived in Kiryat Sheprincek, opposite Kiryat Eliezer.
"I went to elementary school at the Ein Hayam school and at Shprintak high school. Today I am a pensioner of the Zim company, for the last few years I have been staying in Ghana, in the capital Accra, managing a company that is a kind of 'lottery factory' under the company's owner Jacob Engel."
His father was an usher at Kiryat Eliezer, supported Maccabi Haifa.
"I connected with Maccabi Haifa a lot thanks to Danny Shmolevich Rom, the super-actor."
The proximity to the stadium led him to a career in football.
"I was standing on the balcony and I saw a boy from the neighborhood walking down with sneakers on his shoulders. I asked where he was going, and the answer was 'for tryouts at Maccabi Haifa.' Asher Almani Agadi tested the children. I was selected, the friend walked home alone, he was not selected. I started in the right wing position, in all the junior teams I was the youngest in the yearbook. I was invited by David Schweitzer to the first winter tournament."
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He was promoted to the senior team due to the Yom Kippur War: "The war led to the recruitment of many players for battles in the north and south, coach Avraham Menchel promoted Meno Schwartz, Oded Belosh and me to the seniors. I remember the debut very well, March 30, 1974, in Bloomfield against Maccabi Tel Aviv. I came in as a substitute, Molly played as a left-back for the legendary Mikko Belo. It was exciting to be on Bloomfield's turf, we lost 2:0, I was fine in my ability."
In that season he scored the first goal.
"In Kiryat Eliezer, we met Maccabi Netanya, who led the table. I played as a right winger against the fast and tough Shraga Bar, after the corner the ball rolled to me, against Miki Sheinfeld I kicked into the net, a feeling of transcendence in front of the stands. Later Yasha Gal also scored, we won 0:2 The champion, but at the end of the season, Maccabi Haifa dropped from last place to the former A-League North."
The military service did not burden him, since he performed it in the Marcus camp on Hanasi Boulevard in Haifa.
He remembers the days when Haifa was really red.
"In the sixties and seventies, Hapoel Haifa clearly dominated football in the city, a very good team and then also with a bigger audience than Maccabi Haifa, which went up and down between the two top leagues. We didn't have an organized management, we also lacked the big money for more professional management."
Uri Weinberg, then the coach of the team, changed the position to him.
"He called me for a conversation, asked and stated, 'Listen, you will turn from a mediocre right winger into an outstanding defender, I believe in you.' Gross, a player transferred from Hapoel Haifa, to add to the team toughness and required enthusiasm."
A rich career off the field.
Kramer/Courtesy of the photographer
From a courier on a bicycle he became an executive in Zim.
"After being released from the army, I went around without employment. Yohanan Wallach approached me after one of the training sessions and asked if I wanted to work at Zim. I thought he was offering me a job at Tnuva, in the egg sales section. I became a messenger boy on a bicycle, delivering materials from office to office in Haifa and the surrounding area. I worked half a day , another half day was dedicated to football. In the evening I studied English, I advanced in my work at Zim, which owned 120 companies all over the world. Later I worked as a commentator on the program 'Songs and Gates', and Wallach sent me to the company's mission for 20 years in Romania."
While working at Zim, he met quite a few interesting characters.
"I've been almost all over the world, I've been to a gym in Jamaica, where Usain Bolt was sitting. We started talking, a friendship was formed and we went on trips together, an amazing person. At a congress in Poland, I met the leader of the revolution there, Lech Valensa, we talked over a huge glass of beer about the State of Israel . When Abraham Grant coached the Ghana national team, he would come to my house for Friday meals. There is no quality football in Ghana, the best players are pumped to Europe."
amazing guy
Bolt/GettyImages
Returning to football and Maccabi Haifa's first championship in 1983/4.
"Sharaf came to the position of coach, and the truth is, we never spoke and the word championship was never heard in the dressing room, because the candidate was Beitar Jerusalem of Switzerland.
It was only after our Radius game at the field in Netanya at 10:00 in the morning, in which we beat Beitar 1:2, that we began to believe in the word championship. Their loss at the YMCA to Hapoel Tel Aviv turned the table upside down.
Maccabi Haifa became a different club."
In the second championship, he played less in the team and also missed an opportunity for a double. "Eli Ohana scored against us in the cup final in the 85th minute.
I really wanted the swing position."
What was the story of Baruch Maman and Sharaf's cough?
"In our second championship, several games to the end of the season, we went out before a game against Beitar Tel Aviv to a country hotel. called my name. We went up to the rooms, I was upset, I was with Maman in the room, he started to cough slightly. I went down to the lobby, where Sharaf was sitting with the management, I told them that Maman was coughing and sick. They pressed and quickly went up to the room, Maman was surprised. We stayed in the room, Sharaf , Meman and I. I asked Shlomo, 'Why don't I play tomorrow? I will guard Nissim Cohen, break him up, he won't touch the ball, the championship will be ours.' Saturday morning, Shlomo asked where Kramer was, asked me if I wanted to play. I was in the lineup , we beat Beitar Tel Aviv 0:4 and Hapoel Kfar Saba 1:5 and the championship went to us.
I did Maman's cough move because I wanted to talk to Sharaf.
After all, who could approach him and ask to be in the team?"
Did you make a lot of money at Maccabi Haifa?
"Really almost nothing, the money didn't interest me, my desire was just to play in the team, to give everything on the pitch."
Of money?
He just wanted to play.
Kramer/Maariv, Naor Rahav
His request to leave after this season surprised Sharaf.
"I received a request from David to join Hapoel Tel Aviv. I contacted Shlomo, he tried to convince me to stay at the club. I received the release, I moved to Hapoel Tel Aviv. In a practice match against Hapoel Azor I was injured for several weeks. The Shark came up with a winning team that gave performances and I did not play. I asked Schweitzer That he wouldn't cause me problems and would allow me to leave. He agreed like a man."
From red he went straight to the yellow of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"Shimon Shanhar was the coach, it was a very good season at the end of which we fought for the championship and lost in the semi-finals of the cup to Beitar Jerusalem."
A year later, in the 1986/7 season, he got his revenge in Beitar and also won the cup at the expense of the former from Haifa.
"It was a fascinating and exciting cup final. On the way we passed Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem, which we beat in the semi 0:2.
In the final we led 0:2, they equalized and the game went to overtime.
Armeli scored, Derix equalized against Avi Ran, 3:3 and the decision was made on penalties.
I refused to kick, I had no confidence in front of Ren who knew my kicks.
A season before I missed a penalty in the semi-finals.
We won thanks to a penalty by Benny Tabak."
He was not invited to the team. "I don't know why and I didn't do anything to be there.
Today I regret it, I feel like I lost something important that I'm missing now."
Get revenge on the ex.
Kramer training at Maccabi Tel Aviv/Maariv, Adi Avishi
You return to Maccabi Haifa, but taste Hapoel Haifa for the first time.
"I returned to Maccabi Haifa, for the 1987/8 season, a very weak season of the lower playoffs that is remembered for the 0:10 victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv. In the following season, I moved to Itzik Englander's Hapoel Haifa in the national league, where I played as a defender."
Emzia Levkovic returned it before the 1988/9 season, in which Maccabi Haifa won the championship.
"I played that season as a defender, an excellent season of mine. In the cup final we played against Beitar Jerusalem, the famous 3:3 with Ofer Mizrahi's goal.
In the penalty shootout I scored, but Beitar won. Penalties to this day are Maccabi Haifa's black point. At the end of the season, I returned to Hapoel Haifa nationally."
On the shoulders of the fans with Nir Klinger after the 1988/9/Maariv championship, Adi Avishi
His biggest "romance" in football was with Eli Ohana.
"I hated Ohana and he hated me. In the games against Beitar I guarded him with horrible stiffness, I would kick him, but always as much as I tried against him and wanted to, Ohana was a great striker, he would manage to score his beautiful goals against me.
I can say that there was and is no such hatred."
Then you sign a contract at Beitar Jerusalem.
"I signed a contract under coach Lufa Kadosh after the team's relegation to the National League. I entered the dressing room, Ohana had just returned to Israel from Braga, Portugal. I turned my back when he entered. He approached me and said to me, 'Listen Kramer, as much as I hate you, I'm glad you're here in Beit R'.
We immediately became friends, in the same season when we went back up, we were in the same hotel room at all the games."
He signed with Beitar together with Giura Antman, and when Moshe Dadash is involved it must be spicy.
"I was invited together with Antman to the 'Habima' cafe for a meeting with Moshe Dadash and Abram Levy. They ordered me coffee, Antman entered the meeting first, and before I finished the coffee within 5 minutes he left. I entered the negotiation after him and I also left within 5 minutes.
We drove in the same car back to Haifa, in silence.
After Netanya, Antman asked me what I thought about the negotiations. I told him that even though we left shocked, either the contract we asked for was low and they agreed, or they valued us professionally. At the end of the season, Dadash paid us as he promised and as we demanded at the meeting."
And there was another mudslide.
"Before the game against Haq, Raz Dadash stood next to me, he smelled of a divine perfume.
I asked him about the perfume, and Dadash said that if we don't absorb a gate I will get the perfume.
We did a goalless draw, to training on Monday he came with a new wrapped bottle and gave it to me.
A week later I saw a beautiful Rolex watch on him.
I asked about the watch, and Vadash with a smile told me, 'Go away quickly, Kramer.'
He did not give up on the Rolex.
Dadash (from left) with Ohana and Abraham Levy/Maariv, Adi Avishi
He left Jerusalem after the nationalization.
"Dror Kashtan was appointed the coach of the team, to his credit he brought an excellent player to my position, Sergey Tertiak."
He finished his career in the city of Ashdod.
"Nissim Bakr approached me, I came to the south, I helped the team to get to the top league. I tried a little at Dalit El Carmel and Maccabi Acre, but I decided that the story was over, I retired from active football."
How is Sami Ofer compared to Kiryat Eliezer?
"I'm telling you this - I haven't been to a football match at Sami Ofer Stadium yet. I pass by a car when it's on my right or left side."
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