Other than picking up a very important victory on Thursday in Alkmaar, the Club also had another reason to celebrate and that was because central defender Tal Ben Haim, a player who grew up in the Maccabi Youth Department made his 50th appearance in European play. In order to properly accord the honor due, we decided to go back and look at his special moments in UEFA competitions.
Premiere: Ben Haim’s first European foray was in the Yellow & Blue of Maccabi back on September 20, 2001 at the Maksimir Stadium against Dinamo Zagreb. The match ended in a 2:2 draw, a result that helped Maccabi advance to the next round when they drew 1:1 at home in the return leg.
Post Yellow & Blue: In 2004/05 Ben Haim moved to Bolton and the following season made his European debut with the English outfit. 
The match was a second leg for the Wanderers against Bulgarian side Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the round which is now the playoffs right before the group stages of the tournament. The contest ended in a 2:1 win for Bolton, leading them into the group stages. Ben Haim had a terrific campaign which included playing in the Round of 16 which unfortunately ended quite tragically for the defender when his own goal led to his team being ousted by Marseille of France, a club that included the likes of Franck Ribery, Samir Nasir and Fabien Barthez.
The Blues: Ben Haim joined Chelsea in 2007/08 and played his first European game against Rosenborg when he entered the match as a substitute for Joe Cole. The Israeli also played in the match versus Valencia which ended in a goalless draw. That same year Chelsea made it all the way to the finals of the Champions League where they fell to Manchester United on penalties.
Right at home: The defender has had a great time when it comes to playing in the group stages of European competitions. Ben Haim appeared in the group stages of the UEFA Cup/Europa League with Bolton, Manchester City Standard Liege and in the current campaign with the Yellow & Blue. He’s also appeared twice in the Champions League group stages with Chelsea and last season with Maccabi.
How far can you go: The Round of 16 with Bolton was the furthest Ben Haim actually played in when he appeared in both legs against Marseille.
32: The amount of opponents Ben Haim has played against in European tournaments. Some of the names include Paris St. Germain, Sevilla, Besiktas, Chelsea, Porto, Valencia and Dynamo Kiev.
The Russian Connection: Ben Haim has played only one other club more than once, Zenit St. Petersburg. The central defender defeated them with Bolton in the UEFA Cup group stages when teams only played each other once. We’ll cross our fingers and hope that he can defeat them again in his third meeting with the Club in late November when the Yellow & Blue visit the Russian city.
Appearances in number:
Champions League
Maccabi Tel Aviv – 13
Chelsea – 2
Europa League
Maccabi Tel Aviv – 15
Bolton – 7
Manchester City – 5
Standard Liege – 8
