The Legends Club sat down with one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s all time greats, keeper Haim Levin and spoke about his career and his goals after hitting the age of 82:

“I was a Champion, not just in Israel but of the world in diving. I dove everywhere. I could go for meters and I wasn’t scared of anything. My kicks were also great and I could get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other. When we played in Bangkok the whole crowd rose to their feet when I was kicking the ball.”

If he was playing today:

“I know one thing, that if Haim Levin was playing today I wouldn’t have a house big enough for all of the money I would earn. Back in the day we made 50 Lira per match, that was it.”

Secret of his success:

“My secret was hard work. I worked very hard to get to the level I was at including the National Team. In addition, I had a roadmap, knowing what a goalkeeper had to do and how to do it. I have been able to pass this along to my students as well.”

Training a generation of great keepers:

“I trained all of the keepers who made it to the National Team, whether it was Dudu Aoute, Nir Davidovitch or Shavit Elimelech.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv of his day:

“We were a group of guys that stuck together. I came over from Maccabi Haifa. Yosele told them stories that I couldn’t differentiate between colors and I couldn’t see at night or in the dark so they released me and I came over to Maccabi Tel Aviv. I started to win titles and we were an amazing team with a lot of stars. But we were always together so we won, we were a group of winners. We won every title possible, be it the State Cup or the league championship or even the Asian Cup. If we had the same conditions as they do today, we could have won the World Cup. We came to the matches ourselves without any organized transportation. We played for Maccabi.”

Career highlight:

“The highlight of my career was winning the Asian Cup. We played against the Korean National Team who were also a club team. We got to the final without a loss and so did they. It was 0:0 after 90 minutes and also 0:0 after another 30 minutes. The only goal came in the 119th minute. They had a corner kick and I told everyone to come to the goal. I of course caught the ball as usual and I saw Spiegel who was standing off to the side about 35 meters downfield. I threw the ball with all my might and he stopped it. All of the Koreans ran after him. He sent a long pass to Bar Nur and he stopped the ball in front of the goal and sent it over his shoulder.

His future:

“I hope that I can continue to Coach and to try and help more and more keepers.”