From Italy in 1990 to Brazil in just four days' time, here are the Maccabi Tel Aviv players who have featured in the finals of the World Cup
Italy 1990
The date: June 18th. The venue: Stadio San Nicola in the city of Bari on Italy's Adriatic coast. The encounter: The Soviet Union with their goalkeeper Alexander Uvarov face Cameroon and their attacking midfielder Cyrille Makanaky. The Cameroonians had already guaranteed their place in the last sixteen with surprise victories over Diego Maradona's Argentina and Gheorghe Hagi's Romania in their first two encounters, while the Soviet Union had lost hopes of even a third-placed finish. At the final whistle the Soviet Union had produced a 4-0 upset, but Cameroon went on to reach the quarter finals, where they were knocked out by England after extra time. But Uvarov and Makanaky were destined to meet again, this time in Maccabi Tel Aviv kit. Alexander Ubarov joined the team in the summer of 1991 and Cyrille Makanaky followed in his footsteps two years later. And in 1994 together they lifted the trophy of the prestigious Israeli State Cup.
USA 1994
The date: June 25th. The venue: the now abandoned Foxboro Stadium in the town of Foxborough, near Boston, Massachusetts. The encounter: Nigeria with their defender Michael Emenalo face the stellar Argentinian squad of Diego Maradona, Claudio Caniggia and Gabriel Batistuta. Emenalo, who sat out the first group encounter with Bulgaria due to injury, saw team-mate Samson Siasia, who had done a stint at Israeli side Hapoel Tzafririm Holon, put Nigeria in front after only eight minutes. Thirteen minutes later Claudio Caniggia equalised for Argentina and turned the match around with a goal seven minutes after that, handing the South Americans a 2-1 victory. Days later Emenalo played the full 90 minutes in his side's 2-0 victory over Greece but crashed out in the last sixteen after losing 2-1 to Italy in extra time. Afterwards he spent some time moving between smaller clubs in England, the USA and Spain before arriving at Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1998/99 season.
France 1998
Chilean national defender Mauricio Aros spent the group stage matches of the 1998 World Cup final on the bench. The then Club Universidad de Chile player, who would go on to win the Israeli Premier League championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 2002/03 season, saw his team-mates become the only team since the then initiated three points for a victory era to reach the last sixteen without winning any of their group stage matches. There Chile faced holders Brazil and head coach Nelson Acosta decided to beef up his defences by adding Aros to his first eleven. In vain, as it turned out, as Brazil led 3-0 by halftime and sent Chile, and Mauricio Aros in his only World Cup final appearance, packing after a 4-1 victory.
Japan and South Korea 2002
After losing to Argentina and Sweden in the first two group stage matches, Nigerian head coach Festus Onigbinde decided the time had come for a changing of the guard. In the last match against England he sent on a 20 year-old goalkeeper answering to the name of Vincent Enyeama. The talented youngster, then playing in Nigeria's domestic leagues, kept a clean sheet and helped his side earn their only point in that year's World Cup final. From that time until recently, he served as Nigeria's first-choice keeper and after failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup final in Germany he returned in 2010 for the first World Cup final to be played on the African continent. In the 2012/13 season, while wearing Maccabi Tel Aviv kit, he hoisted with his Nigerian team-mates the African Cup of Nations trophy after beating Burkina Faso in the final.
Germany 2006
Another player who made an appearance in a World Cup final and divided his Israeli playing career between the Yellow and Red halves of Tel Aviv, was the Ghanaian defender John Pantsil. And who could ever forget his raising the Israeli flag to celebrate Ghana's qualifying for the last sixteen of the competition! He played all 270 minutes of his team's group stage matches, losing first to Italy but then defeating the Czech Republic and the USA on the way to relegation by Brazil after losing 3-0 in the last sixteen. Two years later Maccabi Tel Aviv would sign a second participant in the 2006 World Cup final, Serbia and (at that time) Montegro goalkeeper Dragoslav Jevric, who spent two seasons with the club. He also played all 270 minutes of his country's group stage matches but fared far worse than his Ghanaian counterpart. His side bowed out in the group stage after failing to get a single point, conceding ten goals in the process, six of them to Argentina, the last of which was scored by a then 19 year-old who came off the bench for his first World Cup final appearance. Name: Lionel Messi.
South Africa 2010
After a successful season at Maccabi Tel Aviv that included 24 appearances, two goals and two assists, midfielder Andrey Komac joined his Slovenian team-mates for their first World Cup final appearance. He came on three minutes from time in their first group stage match, a 1-0 win over Algeria, and even managed to receive a yellow card in injury time. After a second injury-time entrance in a 2-2 draw with the USA, Komac spent his third World Cup final match on the bench as his country lost to England and finished third in their group.
Brazil 2014
Only five players have ever made their way from World Cup final appearances to the dugout at Maccabi Tel Aviv's Bloomfield Stadium, and only three have made the reverse journey. A total of 736 players are on the national squads appearing at the World Cup final in Brazil, among them Vincent Enyeama, who has since lost his place as Nigeria's first-choice keeper to Hapoel Beer Sheva's Austin Ejide, and Bosnian midfielder Haris Medunjanin, who played two seasons for Maccabi Tel Aviv starting in the summer of 2010. But keep your eyes open and follow events very closely, for who knows, perhaps one day other players you will see playing on Brazilian soil will be wearing the yellow Maccabi kit before long .
