Former Maccabi player Andrey Bal has died today in the Ukraine. Close friend Shura Uvarov: "A sad day for us all"
Andrey Bal, a Ukrainian midfielder who played for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the 1990/91 season, died today aged 56. Bal made 32 appearances for the club and scored three goals. His arrival at Maccabi, the first team Bal played for outside his native Ukraine, kick-started a ten year residence in Israel that included a stint as a player with Bnei Yehuda and as assistant coach at Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Herzliya. He was also head coach of Hakoach Ramat Gan during the 1999/2000 season.
In response to the sudden death of Andrey Bal, close friend and long-time Maccabi Tel Aviv goalkeeping coach Shura Uvarov had this to say to the Maccabi Tel Aviv official website: "I knew Andrey from the former U.S.S.R. when we played against one another, he for Dinamo Kiev and me for Dinamo Moskva. But I only got to know him personally here in Israel when I replaced him as a foreign player on the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad in '91. I even got his flat in Lessin St. near Kikar Hamedina in Tel Aviv. When he was still moving to Bnei Yehuda, he came to the flat I was then sharing with Alexander Polukarov to fetch gas masks for himself and his family. From that day on he helped both of us get adjusted to life here when we both spoke no Hebrew and knew nothing about the country. I heard about his death this afternoon from his former agent Boris Norman and since then I've been in shock and mourning".
"I feel like I've lost one of my fingers. Andrey and I were very close, like family, and he was my son Jenya's godfather, who's now 18 and in the army. The last time I saw Andrey was at my daughter's wedding in January. He came with some close friends like Alexei Michaelichenko, Oleg Blokhin and Victor Muruz. Andrey also came to meet us in the Ukraine when Maccabi played there against Dinamo in the group stage of the Europa League three years ago. His last position was assistant coach to Blokhin at Dinamo Kiev, before that he was his assistant at the Ukranian national side. In addition to being a great footballer and an admired person, Andrey was an athlete, a real man and most importantly, a real human being. It's a sad day for all of us".
