Just before the youth teams end training for this season and go out to break, the coaches for the various teams from the Under-19 to Under-15 squads were named for the 2019/20 campaign under the direction of Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen.

Under-19
Eliezer Ben Aharon will be the Under-19 Head Coach for the upcoming season. Ben Aharon has been with the Academy for 8 years with the last three guiding the Under-17 side and winning the league title in all of those seasons. Ben Aharon will move up a level along with the players he coached this past campaign at the U17 level.

Under-17
Ori David will take over as the Under-17 Head Coach after two campaigns with the Under-15 team. David has been with the club for 11 years and has coached the lower age groups until now. His U15 side won the league championship this past season.

Under-16
Eran Sassi will continue with the Under-16 squad in what will be his second season with the club. Sassi guided his team to the State Cup this past campaign.

Under-15
After seven years with Maccabi, Boaz Bracha will become the Under-15 Head Coach. In prior seasons Bracha coached younger teams in the Academy for the club.

The Under-19 Israel National Team will head to Macedonia for a pair of matches against the hosts along with seven representatives of Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv. The two contests will help prepare the team for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers that will take place in Latvia in October. Israel will be in Group 12 along with Holland, Moldova and Latvia.

Yesterday, Israel defeated North Macedonia 2:1 with the Academy’s Bar Cohen scoring the winning goal. In addition to Cohen, other Maccabi representatives include Dan Lugassi, Ido Shahar, Omri Ram, Rave Assayag, David Dego and Guy Mizrahi are also on the Blue & White squad.

Over the past few years, the Maccabi Tel Aviv Avi Cohen Youth Academy has seen a dramatic change thanks to Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen who introduced and imbued his football philosophy throughout the department. This season also saw the introduction of the Individual Elite Training program headed by Raymond Atteveld, van Leeuwen’s assistant, with the goal of developing the Academy’s players. The Individual Elite Training program runs in conjunction with the regular training program and is designed to suit the individual needs of the players who are part of the project. The program includes additional resources for better living, video, physical and tactical sessions for individual players.

Also: The Elite Training Program

Together with Atteveld, who heads the Elite Program, there are a number of Youth Academy who help develop the players according to the philosophy of the club. Boaz Bracha, Hamda Mari and Ori David along with the latest addition to the Academy, Michael Zandberg are all involved in the project.

Ori David explained the importance of the Elite Training Program at the Academy: “The project allows they youth players to reach their maximum in each of the areas of concentration whether it’s professional, physical mental. The coaches under the direction of Raymond Atteveld are bucking training programs with much thought in mind for each individual player in the project with the help of a full team of coaches and analysts.

Michael Zandberg also talked about the goals of the program: “I’m at the beginning of my career as a coach and I feel that this is a place I need to be to learn and improve. I’m sure with my experience I’ll be able to add to the program and help the young players. The Elite Training session are an enrichment for a specific player. Each player receives guidance in an area that they can’t get when they are training with the whole team and the attention given to the players by the coaches is unprecedented where they analyze each and every move. On a personal level it’s also an opportunity to learn and the players have the chance to do so from a number of coaches at one time on the pitch. I hope that I will also improve and develop as a coach so I can help the players much more.”

Hamda Mari discussed the importance of each and every bit of information the player receives: “The players learn many topics that will help them in an actual match. Techniques, offensive moves according to the philosophy of the club, proper defending and more. We work with every player on their weak points in order for them to improve and thereby also being more effective on the pitch with the team itself.”

The goal of the project is to develop the Academy players and help them improve but the coach also take many positives themselves from the project explain Boaz Bracha: “The Elite training sessions demand that the coaches understand each and every movement that the player makes and where they need to improve in the specific area. This will allow them to understand in the simplest form what they need to do so the instructions must be given over at the highest level. The goal is to make sure the player can make the proper adjustments and improve in the best way possible and in order to do that the training session must be player specific so they can then help their team.”

With the Israel Youth League coming to an end, the Under-19 striker Eduardo Guerrero will take part in the Under-20 World Championship in Poland. The Panama native will represent his country in a group with France, Mali and Saudi Arabia. The tournament itself will feature 24 countries including Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Portugal, Mexico and many others from around the globe.

Panama entered the competition from the Central America section where the first 4 teams earned a ticket to the tourney. Panama finished in 3rd along with Honduras. The Yellow & Blue striker didn’t take part in the qualification portion as he was with Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv in Champions League action. Guerrero appeared in 33 matches across all competitions and scored 19 goals (13 league, 1 State Cup, 5 Champions League).

Panama Fixtures:
25.5 – Mali
28.5 – France
31.5 – Saudi Arabia

The Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club will launch a special project this summer in the United States. The Youth Academy is joining forces with the Jewish Communities is Washington, Virginia and will hold a training camp for the children of the area under the Maccabi Tel Aviv banner. The Youth Academy will be sending three coaches who will take part in ten professional program and work in conjunction with the local staff. The children will wear Maccabi Tel Aviv uniforms and will train under the philosophy of the club.

Many clubs hold training camps in the United States including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and many more as they look to expand their reach into North America just like the top European clubs.

The Youth Academy Manager Guy Zukerman will be leading the project under the auspices of Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen.

Zukerman explained the pilot program that will be held this coming summer in Washington: “This summer we’ll be holding our first camp in the United States in Washington in conjunction with the local JCC, the Jewish Community Center. We are sending three coaches from the academy that will work on professional aspects at the camp together with the local staff. The players will wear official Maccabi Tel Aviv uniforms and will train under the club’s philosophy.”

The future:
“We are looking towards to a fruitful future with this program and we’ve had a number of meetings over the past month with the JCC’s on the east coast of the United States, these organizations are looking for a connection to Israel especially with Maccabi Tel Aviv. I believe that this project has a bright future.”

“This project can contribute to the club in many ways. Firstly it puts us in line with the other big clubs in the world and we want the name Maccabi Tel Aviv to be known more and more around the world. It’s a huge market and a wonderful one for the club. In addition this may also give us the opportunity to find a talent that will eventually come to Israel.”

Beitar Jerusalem 0:0 Maccabi “Shachar” Tel Aviv (U19)
The Under-19 squad ended their season with a 0:0 draw as they finished in 2nd place on the table. For the Full Match Report Click Here.

Maccabi “Oded” Tel Aviv 0:2 Maccabi Haifa (U17)
The Under-17 side hosted the Carmel Greens and fell 2:0 on the final Matchday of the season after having already captured the league championship.

Bnei Sakhin 0:7 Maccabi “Eli Fuchs” Tel Aviv (U16)
The Under-16 team visited Sakhin and took home a 7:0 win to end the season in second place on the table. Ener Oshmandi, Dor Turgeman, Rotem Grama, Zin Shalata, Sean Edri and Ori Halevy x2 scored for the Yellow & Blue. On Tuesday at 19:30 the squad will look to win the State Cup when they face Ahi Nazareth at Ramat Gan Stadium.