44-years ago this week in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, there was boy that was born by the name of Rodrigo Alejandro Goldberg Mierzejewski or better known in this part of the world as just Rodrigo Goldberg
The Chilean striker who just celebrated his birthday was known as one of the most important foreign players that came to Israel and played for the Yellow-and-Blue. One of the best parts of Goldberg’s time with Maccabi was how he blossomed into the great striker that he was when he played in Israel.
One of the people close to Goldberg during his time with Maccabi was the then coach Nir Levin, who is now the Director of Maccabi’s Youth Department, who knows what kind of great story he was. “Rodrigo’s story is really special,” Levin described. “When I was coaching Maccabi, the CEO Shimon Kork said that there is a player in Chile by the name of Rodrigo Goldberg who has a contract with the club. He said that they would like to bring him to Israel to train and that I should try and find him a club.”
Goldberg had just returned to Israel after having a not so successful spell under coach Avram Grant but was now given a chance to revive his career. “We brought him to Israel and he began to practice and play with the reserve team. The reserve side had a very good team with ‘keeper Liran Strauber, Avi Strul, Mani Levy and even central defender Tal Ben Haim. Rodrigo played very well with the reserve team and his best match was the Derby game that was moved to Bloomfield Stadium where he scored the tying goal.”
From there, Goldberg’s story just got bigger and bigger and he became the player we remember to this day. “He joined the first team and was already in good shape. I gave him a chance in a league match that we ended up defeating Beitar in by a 7:0 score and Hapoel Haifa by 4:0 and he played great up front with Avi Nimni, Reuven Oved and Baruch Dego. He also was in the starting lineup for the Israel State Cup game where we won the title against Maccabi Petach Tikva in 2000/01. In the first half we had trouble but in the second half his first goal opened up the game as we went on to win 3:0 and lifted the cup.”
The Youth Department Director also shed some light on Goldberg’s personal side that allowed him to become a fan favorite very quickly: “Rodrigo was a very special person when he was with the team. Footballers have many different hobbies away from the game but when we were in a hotel prior to a match he would be sitting there with a thick English book, reading it even though it wasn't his mother tongue. He was an open person and very warm like many South Americans. It’s amazing to think back to the end of his career when he came back big time and was a huge help in winning the State Cup, a second State Cup and a League Championship.”
