Relationships like father and son with Robbie Shapira.
Abby Kaufman/Bud
"I was one of the last that Robbie Shapira talked to from his office, on the sad day he decided to end his life. The late Robbie prepared a farewell page with 13 names of people with whom he had his last conversations.
His accomplice Avi Abouxis showed me the page stained with blood, 13 names and I appear as number 12. The day before the tragic event I had a feeling that something bad would happen, I had many conversations with him before that, I warned that something bad was expected, but but everyone said it was a wolf , Zev'."
Robbie was in Israel about two weeks before the incident. Didn't they see anything?
"Hapoel Haifa under coach Guy Levy had a game against Hapoel Ashkelon away.
We won, and Robbie Shapira insisted on taking the team to a good dinner at a restaurant.
He looked good and calm, when they asked him what would happen, he answered briefly 'soon everyone will know'.
It was like a farewell party for him from the group, later he returned to
his business in Nigeria." There was a difficult conversation between you and him.
"The situation at Hapoel Haifa was then suddenly difficult, checks bounced, they didn't understand that he couldn't bring money to Hapoel Haifa at that time."
Dinner is particularly difficult.
Ruby Shapira/Official website, Reuven Cohen, spokeswoman for Haifa Municipality
The relationship between you was like father and son.
"Roby and I were like a child who looks after his father. I loved him, Robbie came to Hapoel Haifa to do only good and that's how it was, he made dreams come true for our fans. Then I had an offer from Meir Shamir to become the CEO of Hapoel Petah Tikva.
There was already a conclusion, but I informed Shamir that I was staying with Ruby Shapira.
In the two years after the championship with Hapoel Haifa, I entered a difficult situation and gained weight up to 105 kg, but later I returned to my desired weight."
How did Hapoel Haifa continue to exist after Robbie Shapira?
"It was not an easy situation, players like Njuan Grave, Giovanni Russo and more were sold. I made sure to bring respectable sponsors and sponsorships to the club."
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Avi Kaufman was born on March 15, 1959. "The late mother Miriam came from Romania from the town of Poltichan, the late father Eli came from Czechoslovakia, from the ultra-orthodox town of Khost, which was a center for Torah studies in Eastern Europe. The family members studied Torah in Haydar, but At the same time they worked. The parents arrived in Israel in 1949."
His father's way to Israel was through an extermination camp.
"Father was in the Birkenau death camp adjacent to Auschwitz. When the French army entered and liberated Birkenau, Father was a skeleton, suffering from typhus on the verge of death. The French transferred him to France for treatment, where he recovered and became healthy. We are brother and sister. The beginning in Israel was during the passage in Kiryat Malachi, The continuation on a rainy day, on the eve of Passover, to the tents in Poria above Tiberias. Later, father found a job at a wine factory near Kiryat Haim, we moved to a two-room apartment in Haifa."
He studied at Tel Hai elementary school in Neve Shanan, transferred to Iruni C and from there to Bialik Gymnasium: "In the class above me, the goalkeeper Meno Schwartz and Eli Gutman studied.
At the Tel Hai school, which was adjacent to the house where I lived, I stayed after school for the ball games.
Mother would go down to the field and in front of everyone bring me a meal of pita with delicious schnitzel."
Youth team meeting.
From the left: Eitan Budniuk, Oded Belosh, Yaron Brown, Dubla Remler, Sassi Avitsour.
Standing: Avi Kaufman, Avi Friedman and Oded Mkans/Relation
Before football he was a basketball coordinator.
"I also played soccer and baseball. We won the schools championship in the North, two years in a row in the Northern Cup in basketball. Then, while riding a bicycle, I fell and broke my arm. Basketball ended, the era of soccer began. As a child, I had two uncles, one took me to Maccabi Haifa games, The second to Hapoel Haifa. In Neve Shanan there were more Hapoel Haifa fans then."
Your choice was finally in them.
"True, Hapoel Haifa had branches in schools on asphalt fields. Those who followed recommended me to the children of Hapoel Haifa. I remember with disappointment the cup final game for children in which we lost in Zichron Ya'akov to the children of Maccabi Netanya 0:1. I quickly advanced to the youth team of coach Tibi Neuman. At the age 15 The late coach Jacob Grundman made me train on Thursdays with the seniors."
The first senior match was with Nahum Stelmach: "I was 16 years old and three months old at Bloomfield Stadium, against Shimshon Tel Aviv, 0:0 and a good game by me."
There was then a story of Ashkenazim and Sephardim.
"So we went to the games with 7-seater taxis, there was an Ashkenazi taxi and a Sephardi taxi. The dressing room also had different benches. I was shocked, I went straight to the Sephardic bench of Inchi, Yehuda David, Iluz and Aharon Cohen, I stopped this delusional story ".
Friend off the field, dictator on the field.
David Schweitzer/Flash 90, Moshe Shay
Who were your inspiration players?
"From Hapoel Haifa, Abba Gindin and Victor Boni, who gave their soul on the field for the team. At Maccabi Haifa, I loved Aharleh Gershgorn and David Gozlan."
Emmanuel Shafer invited him to the youth team.
"It was a prestigious and exciting call-up for me, a team with Gili Landau, Lesri, Avi Friedman, Avi Yerushalmi, Budniuk, Hanan Azoulay and more. Shafer turned me into a 50/50 midfielder who does defense and attack, he told me I was his coach on the field. Shafer educated me for professionalism, gave me the tools for the rest of my life, advised me later on in everything. A huge man."
He directed you to play in Germany.
"Sheffer told me that I would be the second player he would send to play in Germany for the Borussia Monchengladbach team, after Shmuel Rosenthal from Hapoel Petah Tikva. The move was missed because of a lot of my nonsense."
Then came David Schweitzer.
"He was a friend off the field, on the field a different person, losing was an unbearable story for him. When we had already lost, it was not worth coming to Monday's practice, there was hatred for practice after a loss. I played on the team with Spiegler and Sholem Schwartz. The victory was also at Motel'a It's in the blood. It was fun to be with Motel'a on and off the field, a pleasant companion."
At that time he married Vared.
"We met in high school, the wedding was in 1982 at the University of Haifa, the only place in Haifa where it was allowed to play music after 11:00 p.m. We have three sons - Roy Hai in London, from whom we have two sweet granddaughters, an age that postponed the wedding due to enlistment in the reserves for the Gaza war , the wedding will be with God's help in May, and a third son, Yonatan. I live in Carmel."
Proof of willpower.
Benin/Maariv, Danny Maron
In the 1986/87 season, Yitzhak Shum coached Hapoel Haifa: "He was a coach who understands football, likes attacking football, who promoted me a lot, but one professional mistake for me caused us not to be promoted. We confidently led the table, but Shum decided to add the midfielder from Hapoel Beer Sheva Haim Ben Shanan and I decided to take me out of the lineup. Our whole structure changed, we just lost points, we lost to Hapoel Jerusalem, to Hapoel Tiberias and I, when I returned, scored an own goal in the game against Maccabi Ramat Amidar into Ofer Nosovsky's net. We finished in third place, Zafaririm Holon was promoted to the league."
Hapoel Haifa in your time against the current team?
"In the team of my time, with today's professional conditions and money, the sky was the limit. The construction back then was correct, we all started football in street and neighborhood games, today we don't have that."
You often tell about Tal Benin and Ran Sahar.
"The two are the example of how super successful footballers are created. Ran Sahar was a huge talent, an exceptional talent with unusual abilities, bomb kicks and understanding of the game, but one who did not want to break through and invest all in football, which is a shame. Benin was much less talented, but gave the devoted himself to football with love and ambition and reached other areas. Benin, in my opinion, is one of his generation, I am his fan."
And he is also the one who ended your career.
"We were in a training camp with Hapoel Haifa in Germany, during one of the training sessions Benin hit me hard and I felt a strong movement in my knee with pain. When I got up I said to Benin, 'Well done for the sporting audacity, to fight for the ball without paying attention to veteran players. I decided to retire from football and not undergo knee surgery. I was I was only 28 years old and I did not go back on the decision despite the efforts of coach Roni Dora. I was in the business of distribution lines for the 'Artik' company, I had a cooling and distribution room for IDF bases and many factories.
Even today I am involved in private businesses and various initiatives."
A failed project.
tax.
Robby Shapira/Walla system!
NEWS, Lilac Weiss
And finally, the fan group named after Robbie Shapira.
"I and many others had a vision to establish a football team in the style of Hapoel Katmon Jerusalem. At first it went fantastic, fans came to the games, we rose from League C to League A. Later things did not work out, there were no sponsors and last season the team disbanded painfully. Today the club only has a department youth and children".
And what about Hapoel Haifa?
"There is an owner, but a team without a soul. I don't go to Hapoel Haifa's games, to see red in the eyes I fly every two months to London to see Arsenal who might win the championship this season."
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Avi Kaufman