Sheran Yeini’s second half substitute appearance against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Monday’s derby was his 518th appearance for Maccabi in all competitions. The 35-year-old captain who made his senior debut for Maccabi against Sakhnin in 2004 spoke about how his career evolved and took him this far: “I never thought about breaking any Maccabi records and find myself so high up in the appearances list. I thought about moving abroad, to Europe as my dream was to play for Ajax but I am glad with the way my career panned out. I started my senior in a Toto Cup match against Bnei Sakhnin, and I played in the middle against a player by the name of (Ernst) Etchi who was a giant of a man and as much as I am slim now I was even smaller then. I remember a few tough tackles with him as he gave me a welcoming reception to senior football”. Yeini, who leapfrogged past Eli Driks to capture the second place behind Miko Belo who made 599 appearances for Maccabi, added: “To reach this landmark now especially at such a match is very exciting”.
Ahead of Maccabi’s run-in, Yeini remained adamant: “Maccabi’s aim is to win all the time and collect as many points as possible. Sadly the victory in our last game didn’t bring us any closer so that we could still compete for the league title. What is important for us is to fight for titles, but if we are too far behind then we must do our best to collect as many points as possible for our remaining matches”.
