Today, I will once again walk on the Bloomfield pitch. I feel that a lot of time has passed since that great season. I haven’t played football for 11 years and one year passes by the next as time doesn’t stand still. The memories sometimes go through my head. I miss the ball, the stadium and the tension of the game. I’m glad that there are moments that I can embrace and that put a smile on my face.
The 1995/96 season was crazy and there’s no way to explain it to someone who actually didn’t experience it. The prior year we took the title from Maccabi Haifa who may have been better than us but didn’t have the same heart and soul. The next year, the Double Season, we played amazing football and put on quite a show. That Championship was very sweet and we played convincing football throughout the campaign. No fan or player will ever forget that season.
We allowed only 16 goals and that’s not something to sneeze at. The three of us, Gady Brumer who was at my side, Shura Uvarov in goal and myself gave the squad plenty of confidence. There’s no question that winning the Double was a milestone. The year was also crazy for me between Maccabi and the National Team as well as for my personal development as a player. It’s no exaggeration to say that this was an unforgettable season from every angle.
I was very pleased to receive an invitation to the launch of the “Ex-Players Club” that will take place right before Maccabi’s match with Hapoel Raanana. It’s always great to receive recognition for what we had accomplished. There aren’t many Clubs that know how to honor their tradition and it’s a very important issue. Without connecting to the past, there is no future and this is especially important with a football club. There are players from that season that to this day are still venerated by the fans. I’m 45 years old now and occasionally when I’m walking on the street a 30-year old fan will stop me and say that they grew up watching me. It’s a lot of fun to look back at that time.
Maccabi fans, you “fell” into the right team and the right club to be a part of, especially over the past few years. The future of the club is still in front of all of us. Slowly but surely the club is growing bigger and bigger and that’s something we didn’t have due to a variety of factors. My generation ended the championship drought that led to a couple of amazing decades. Today, there is peace and quiet within the club and that is the foundation for success.
See you at Bloomfield!
