Maccabi's legendary striker Shaya Glazer today celebrated his 87th birthday. From the official Maccabi website, happy birthday Shaya!
Today exactly 87 years ago, a talented young lad was born in North Tel Aviv by the name of Shaya Glazer. That same young lad grew up to be one of the greatest players to wear the yellow-and-blue kit of Maccabi Tel Aviv.Maccabi Tel Aviv's legendary forward Yehoshua ("Shaya") Glazer, who started his career as a defender, came up through the club's youth system and joined the senior squad at the young age of eighteen in 1945. In his first years with the club, before the establishment of the State of Israel, Glazer celebrated two consecutive prestigious State Cup victories in the 1945/46 and 1946/47 seasons. That was only the beginning of the celebrated career, abounding with trophies, of a striker who would remain the terror of the Israeli domestic league throughout the 1950's.
His first milestone came in the 1951/52 season when he scored an amazing 27 goals, a season goal-scoring record for a Maccabi Tel Aviv player that remained unchallenged for 52 years until the 2013/14 season when Eran Zahavi surpassed him with 29. For many years Glazer was also Maccabi Tel Aviv's all-time highest goal scorer with 130 lifetime goals. His prolific goal-scoring ability often came in the form of braces, hat-tricks and even four-in-a-match, with his pinnacle of six goals reached in a match against Hapoel Balfouria in the 1954/55 season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgof0mqmp5g
Glazer was the spearhead of the Maccabi attack throughout the 1950's and led them to numerous trophies and absolute dominance of Israeli football throughout the entire decade. Those trophies include five championships ('49/'50, '51/'52, '53/'54, '55/'56, '57/'58) and four State Cup trophies ('53/'54, '54/'55, '57/'58, '58/'59), not including the two Glazer won before the establishment of the State of Israel. He scored in five of those six State Cup finals and in several of them also served as team captain. In two seasons, 1951/52 and 1956/57, Glazer finished as the league's top goal scorer. Also as a member of the Israeli national team Glazer was a major figure for the largest part of his career. Between the years 1949 and 1961 he led the Israel attack and scored 18 goals in 35 appearances.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club and the entire Maccabi family wish Shaya Glazer a very happy birthday. Mazal Tov!
Photograph courtesy of the Israel Football Association archives
