Avi Nimni, the player who gave Maccabi fans some of the finest moments, celebrates his 50th birthday today, April 26th. In his honor, the Legends Club looks back at his illustrious career, one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s greatest, if not the greatest of them all. Nimni was born in 1972 and played with the club for nearly two decades, playing 18 seasons in Yellow & Blue. By scoring 194 league goals, he is the club’s all-time leading scorer.

Nimni went through the Maccabi Tel Aviv Youth Department and at the age of 18 made his first team debut in the second to last match of the 1989/90 season against Hapoel Kfar Saba. The following season he was a regular in the starting lineup and scored 10 goals across all competitions. Nimni’s first hat trick came in a 3:3 draw against Hapoel Petah Tikva when he was just 19 years of age in the 1991/92 championship season. During that same campaign the left footed midfielder scored 15 league goals and picked up his first title. Nimni proved to be a very important piece of the Maccabi puzzle over the next decade and played a huge part of the success of the club scoring in double digits in his first 7 seasons.

1991/92 4:0 Derby

Number 8 was a dominating figure as the club collected many titles over the first half of the 1990’s. Anytime Maccabi needed an important goal, Nimni was there especially during the Double Season of 1995/96. Nimni scored the goal that finished off the Match of the Season against Maccabi Haifa, he found the back of the goal in the State Cup Final and also scored the lone marker in the championship match against Beitar Jerusalem. Over the course his career, many players left or retired but Nimni remained a true Yellow & Blue. Other than a short spell at Spanish side Atletico Madrid and English outfit Derby County, the majority of Nimni’s career was spent at Kiryat Shalom. After a season in England, Nimni came back and scored 25 league goals to win the 2000/01 goal scoring title and also picked up a State Cup with a 3:0 victory over Maccabi Petah Tikva.

Nimni scores the 1995/96 Championship Goal

After winning another State Cup, Nimni spent the 2002/03 season between the Starting XI and the bench. But number 8 got back into the swing of things just in time. Six goals in the final 3-matches gave Maccabi a better goal differential over Maccabi Haifa to win the title. Following the championship, Nimni headed to Beitar Jerusalem where he played for two seasons before returning to the Yellow & Blue for the final three years of his career which ended after the 2007/08 campaign.

Nimni’s Hat-trick against Bnei Yehuda in 2002/03

His 194 all-time league goals rank third just behind Alon Mizrachi and Oded Macness. As the Club’s leading goal scorer he finds himself ahead of one of Maccabi’s legendary players in Sheya Glazer who found the back of the goal 130 times. Nimni also had a marvelous career for the Israel National Team making 80 appearances for the Blue & White, scoring 17 times for his country. After his playing career, Nimni was the Club’s manager between 2008-2011, winning the Toto Cup in the 2008/09 season.

Honors & Awards
Championship: 1991/92, 1994/95, 1995/96, 2002/03
State Cup: 1993/94, 1995/96, 2000/01, 2001/02
Toto Cup: 1992/93, 1998/99
Appearances: 489
Goals: 216