52-years ago today Maccabi Tel Aviv opened their 1963/64 campaign. The first match of the year took place in the second round of the Israel State Cup as Jerry Beit HaLevi’s Yellow-and-Blue side faced off against Beitar Machane Yehuda. The names that littered the Maccabi lineup included the likes of Haim Levy, David Karako, Nissim Bachar, Moshe Asis, Shlomo Schva and others. That same season Beit HaLevi brought up three youth players to the first team and one of them made a sensational debut scoring five times into the Machane Yehuda goal. His name, Giora Spiegel.
Karako and Asis also joined the scoring parade with a brace a piece. The State Cup tournament was then suspended and continued the following year as Maccabi won the trophy and Speigel collected his first title.
Number 8 began his illustrious career 52 years ago would end up being one of the greatest players to ever pull on a Maccabi shirt. Spiegel would be one of Beit HaLevi’s “Babies”, the group of youngsters that came up to play for Maccabi along with Tzvika Rosen, Uri Kedmo and Miko Bello.
Spiegel would go on to play nine straight years with Maccabi and then would move on to Strasbourg and Olympique Lyonnais. In 1979 he would return to the Yellow-and-Blue and add another title to his trophy case which included four league championships, three State Cups and two Asian Champion Club Tournament titles.
