Maccabi Tel Aviv is currently going through a very successful period in their history and this is thanks to the people who helped found and build Maccabi Tel Aviv. As part of maintaining the great traditions of the club, the Avraham Bendoni Tournament took place for the 4th time. The tournament is named after goalkeeper Avraham Bendoni who played for the Yellow-and-Blue prior to the founding of the State of Israel and is thought to be one of the great players to have ever suited up for the club. Bendoni also stood between the goal posts for Israel’s first ever official national team match. This year’s tournament featured ‘keepers from not only Maccabi Tel Aviv but other clubs as well including Hapoel Petach Tikva, Beitar Jerusalem and Bnei Yehuda. Haim Levin a former goalkeeping star also visited with the players during the mini-matches that were taking place.
Chen Abdu, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Educational Consultant and Head Goalkeeping Coach of the Youth Department was in charge of the tournament ad explained about the importance of having this competition from both a professional and educational standpoint: “This tournament has now taken place for four years and for the first time during Chol Hamoed Sukkot. The objective of the tourney is to honor the fine work of Bendori and that’s why it’s named after him. The goal is to do something fun and educational with all of the ‘keepers. Most tournaments are for
regular players but this one is special just for the goalkeepers.”
On the values that were taught to the participants:
“Some of the things that I tried to do along with Guy Nachshon and Eitan Hamiel was to convey the cherished past of the club. Not just about the current players but also about the players from its illustrious history. I explained to them that the role of the ‘keeper is not easy and also the relationship between the clubs. We are working here on education and it’s disappointing for me that some of the big clubs that we 
invited to participate in this tournament couldn’t see past the rivalries and understand that what we are doing here is for the benefit of the youth and teaching educational values. I hope that next year we will see more teams participating.”
About the players experience:
“The players enjoyed themselves and that’s important. They worked on all of the skills that a ‘keeper needs to, they got to know their fellow ‘keepers and there was amazing sportsmanship between the players. Another interesting fact is that Tzachi Roffe was also part of this and he’s someone I had trained in the past.”
The Maccabi Tel Aviv ‘keepers won the tournament after going toe-to-toe with their Hapoel Petach Tikva counterparts as the medals were handed out by Youth Department Director Nir Levin. The goalkeeping coach of Bnei Yehuda Yakov Assayag, Avi Dadon from Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Petach Tikva’s Medan Katzar all took part in the tournament.
