The ONE ZERO League 2022/23 season will come to an end on Saturday (20:30) as Maccabi travels to Ashdod for the MD36 encounter against the team ranked in 6th place. Eylon Almog, who began the season at Maccabi, joined Austrian outfit Hartberg, but returned to the club in the winter after his loan-spell wasn’t as successful as he expected – summed up the season he experienced. The 24-year-old forward who scored a goal against Hapoel Be’ersheva to complete a 3-0 victory at Bloomfield, said: “It is always feels great to score as I have been doing so from a really young age and obviously have this passion to do it time after time. It doesn’t make a difference to me whether the game is over or not, especially at Maccabi Tel Aviv, every minute is important. This is the club I grew-up at from the age of 10 and always dreamed of reaching the first team and succeeding at. It is truly an amazing feeling and I am hungry for more. We have left match left till the end of the season and I will give a 100% to show how good I am and deserve to be here and do the same next season as well.”
The victory over Be’ersheva gave Maccabi a chance to finish in the runners-up spot, as Almog was asked to sum-up what is clearly a disappointing season all around: “I was raised and educated to take championships at Maccabi, to fight for every possible title and to win every game. You don’t need me to say, this is an unsuccessful season, it is proven that Maccabi needs to clinch every possible title or to fight for it until the final second. We are in the situation that we are, sometimes things don’t work out as planned, but I can promise you that we as players give everything and know that we need to deliver on the pitch. At the end of the day we must bring results. The fans are part of us, they are the 12th player as we feel them in matches and always wish to make them happy. Sadly it didn’t work out as we would have wished for this season but we will do everything to come back better and stronger – to fight for every possible title because this is Maccabi Tel Aviv.”
On the season he underwent, Almog said: “If I go back and tell you that I have been at Maccabi from the age of 10 and my dream was always to reach the first team. All the steps I made from a really young age, was to be at Maccabi. I had three seasons with the first team and thought that I would like to play more and on a regular basis. This is the reason why I chose to go out on loan. In addition to Maccabi, my dream has always been to play abroad and the situation allowed me to do so. Despite a good start, it ultimately didn’t work out for various reasons and the only option I had left was to return to Maccabi. I worked really hard by myself to regain my fitness and would like to thank the coaching staff and Ilan Richardson in particular for working with men and helping me along the way. I am delighted to be back and value every minute at Maccabi.”
