Eli Ohana
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| Eli Ohana | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Eliyahu Ohana | |
| Date of birth | February 1, 1964 | |
| Place of birth |  Jerusalem, Israel |
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| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Hapoel Kfar Saba | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1980-1987 1987-1990 1990-1991 1991-1999 |
Beitar Jerusalem KV Mechelen S.C. Braga Beitar Jerusalem |
? (?) 51 (10) 25 (3) 144 (65) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1984-1997 | Israel | 50 (17) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001 2001-2003 2003-2005 2006-present |
Beitar Jerusalem Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv Maccabi Petah Tikva Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv Beitar Jerusalem Hapoel Kfar Saba |
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1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Eli Ohana (Hebrew: אלי אוחנה; born February 1, 1964 in Jerusalem, Israel) is an Israeli football manager and currently the manager of the Hapoel Kfar Saba.
[edit] Early life and Playing Career
Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Ohana had a memorable playing career in the Liga Leumit at Beitar Jerusalem. He is largely regarded as the best player ever to grow up and don the uniform of Beitar Jerusalem.
At the age of eleven, Ohana joined the youth system of Beitar Jerusalem. From the beginning, Ohana stood out for his extremely good talent at finding the back of the net and was quickly promoted to the first team. There he coupled with Uri Malmilian to bring the club the first league title and two State Cups.
His talent was realized by the manager of the national team and Ohana was soon scoring goals for his country. The most memorable of which was in a crucial FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Australia in 1989. Australia manager, Frank Arok apparently had made anti-semitic comments before the game. During the match, Ohana dribbled through two defenders and completely fooled the keeper to give Israel a 1-0 lead. Ohana quickly ran to the Australian manager and kissed the star of David in front of his face forever immortalizing himelf in Israeli football history[1].
By age twenty-three, Ohana had enough with Israeli football and signed with KV Mechelen in Belgium. After one season, Ohana helped bring the club to one of its greatest achievements ever, winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. His goal in the semi-final and assist on the game winning goal in the final helped write his name into the history books of Mechelen. Italian magazine, Guerin' Sportivo awarded Ohana with the Bravo Award which is handed out to the best young player (under 23) playing in European competition in a season.
Despite his success in Europe, Ohana returned home to Israel to resign with Beitar Jerusalem who were then playing in the Liga Artzit (Nationwide League)[2]. After just one season he helped them return to the Liga Leumit (National League) and then guided the club to a league title just after being promoted. About five years later Ohana would lead the club to back to back league titles. An injury during the 1997/98 season led Ohana to retire from active football.
[edit] Managerial career
His managerial career started during his last playing season when he acted as an assistant to Dror Kashtan. After retiring he was promoted to manager replacing Kashtan. After leading his childhood club to a sixth place league finish and cup final, he left for Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv but resigned after they were relegated to the Liga Leumit. After seven matches in charge of Maccabi Petah Tikva in 2001, he was fired and rejoined Bnei Yehuda, the same club he led to relegation the year before. This time he was able to guide them to a dramatic return to The Premier League.
The next season he was fortunate to keep the team from being relegated again. Calls came from fans of Beitar Jerusalem to bring Ohana back to the club and that is essentially what happened before the 2003/04 season. There he would stay for three seasons before stepping down as manager after the club was sold to Arcadi Gaydamak. He would make a return to management with Hapoel Kfar Saba and save them from relegation.
| Preceded by Marco van Basten |
Bravo Award 1988 |
Succeeded by Paolo Maldini |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jews in Sports profile - Eli Ohana
- ^ Up until 1999, the Liga Artzit was the second tier of Israeli football.
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