Rafi Levi

Rafi Levi (born 1938^[1]) is an Israeli footballer, who played most of his career in Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Levi won twice the Season Top Scorer award. First time in the 1957–58 season with 19 goals and for the second time during the 1959–60 season with 15 goals. He also was among the top players leading Maccabi Tel Aviv to two championships and in the 1955–56 and 1957–58 seasons, and two Israeli State Cups (1958 and 1959). Later he played in Australia and South Africa, and retired from football in 1972.^[1]

Rafi Levi has 17 appearances in Israel national football team. One of the best game was the victory over the Yugoslavia in the 1960 Summer Olympics qualification. In the game Rafi Levi scored two goals and was considered one of the two heroes (along with the Israeli goalkeeper Ya'akov Hodorov). This victory is considered one of the most surprising victories in the history of Israeli football, and brought a wave of elation among the Israeli sports fans.^[1]

Following the victory over Yugoslavia, Levi wrote a book using his pen name Shraga Gafni a children's book Kick Alon Kick, in the book one of the figures is the center forward, "Alon Levi", who was based on himself. The book quickly became a Best Seller - the first book sold out following further information books, which are also a commercial success, and made a series called The Young Athletes.^[2]

Honours

• Israeli Championship (2): 1955–56, 1957–58
• State Cup (3): 1955, 1958, 1959
• National South African Championship (3): 1960, 1964, 1966, 1968
• South African Cup (3): 1965, 1966, 1967
• New South Wales Federation Championship (2): 1961, 1962
• New South Wales Federation Cup (2): 1961, 1963

References