Nearly 200 Maccabi fans came with their families to meet the first-team players in the last Open House of the season
Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club are firm believers in the importance of hosting young fans and creating a bond between them and the players and with the club as a whole. And so, just two days after defeating Maccabi Netanya, the Maccabi Tel Aviv squad today played host to hundreds of the team's fans and their families at the Kiryat Shalom training ground in what was the last Open House of the season. After a visit to the official Maccabi shop inside the ground to buy all sorts of team merchandise, the fans waited for the players to come out and passed the time by kicking footballs about on the pitch. Among the players who later did arrive to hand out their autographs and have their picture taken with fans was Roberto Colautti, who scored Maccabi's winning goal, his eighth of the season, in their latest league game. The Argentinian-born striker, who was chosen man-of-the-match on the club's Facebook page, was eager to express his gratitude to the fans: "I'd like to thank all the fans for choosing me man-of-the-match. You fans mean a great deal to us players, especially in a week like this when we're playing three matches that are crucial for us to qualify for Europe. I intend to donate the television I was awarded at the end of the match to a good cause, but the biggest donation of all is made by you fans, whose support in the stadium and on the club's Facebook page is heart-warming to us all".
