The Stars Of Israeli Soccer: TAL BANIN

January, 1993... Week 15 of the National League, and the game in Petakh-Tikwa between the local Hapoel and Hapoel Haifa seems to be a total boredom with absolutely nothing to see. It's clear one goal here or there will be crucial in this game; and after 86 minutes, the goal to make us forget all the boredom comes... In a counterattack of Haifa, Zahi Armeli raises his head on the right wing and bounces a clever far-range ball to the other side; and there, at the box edge, a left foot is raised to the height of 1.2 meters, sending an unstoppable volley shot under the left crossbar of desperately flying Shai Hess. There was no doubt this goal would become "The Goal Of The Year", and I went even further - I declared it "The Volley Shot Of All Times", in my humble opinion. The killing beauty of this left-footer belonged to Tal Banin.

Born on April 4th, 1971 in Haifa's suburb named Tirat Ha'Carmel, Tal Banin was signed by Maccabee Haifa at 1989. In just a year, Haifa won a double. The Greens of the season 1990-91, under the coach Shlomo Sherf, had a wonderful squad - the fantastic Soviet International Victor Chanov in the net, the strong defence of Marco Balbul, Avraham Abukarat, Rafi Osmo and the Soviet International Vladimir Bessonov, Moshe Eisenberg in the attack, the young Reuven Attar and Eyal Berkovich in the midline... But above all, it was Tal Banin, who became the youngest Israeli player after Eli Ohana to get "The Player Of The Year" title, at the age of barely 20.

Even before that season started, it had become clear Banin would become soon a hot name of the Israeli soccer. May 16th, 1990, and the Israeli team hosted the great Soviet team, the European Vice-Champions of 1988, in Ramat-Gan for a friendly game; I remember sitting in a little kitchen of our apartment in Leningrad, 56 days before our coming to Israel, and watching the tiny black-and-white TV, my heart parted. And Israel opened the score - a great penetration of Tal Banin on the left wing resulted in a great precise pass to a no less beautiful flying header of Uri Malmilian, 1:0 after 18 minutes of play. The Soviet Union equalized 9 minutes later after a great far-ranger of Gennady Litovchenko to kiss the net of Shuli Gilardi; but in another 4 minutes, it was Israel again - Moshe Sinai made a magnificent pass to Nir Levin, and the latter overplayed Victor Chanov inside the box, 2:1. Still in the 1st half, Alexei Mikhailichenko of Sampdoria equalized again, being stopped once by Gilardi, but still finding his way to push the rebound in. And still, it was the Israeli team to win - after 67 minutes of play, a great confusion was caused in the Soviet box, and Tal Banin reached the ball before everybody else to shoot it in. 3:2 to Israel!

The next season wasn't as brilliant for Maccabee Haifa as the golden one. The team finished just the 3rd, losing also in the Cup semifinal, 2:4 to Maccabee Tel-Aviv in a thrilling game. But the 2 big stars of Maccabee, Reuven Attar and Tal Banin, were still in a good form, Attar scoring 13 goals and Banin 8; Eyal Berkovich helped those two with his clever midline game. But at the end of the season, Banin decided "to cross the road" to Hapoel Haifa; the Reds were promoted to the National League from the Country League, and the team needed several experienced players to make its lines stable.

And indeed, the coach Roni Dora (BTW, Banin's uncle) managed to present a good team that caught the 7th place and surprised a lot of better teams and nearly every soccer specialist. Giora Antman in the net, the Ukrainean International players Vadim Tischenko and Vladimir Gorilly in the defence, an experienced Zahi Armeli ("Israeli Player Of The Year" in 1985) as an attacking midfielder and Itai Mordechai in the attack - those were the stars of Hapoel that season; but the brightest star, once again, was Tal Banin. A man of tremendous will to succeed, Banin was marked with his help to a defensive line, a tough game in a good sense of the word, a clever midline game, the magnificent goal passes... And, of course, a mighty left foot, the thing that made Shai Hess concede "The Goal Of The Season". All these qualities were naturally enough to bring him into the National Team squad, under Shlomo Sherf.

Israel started to make its first steps in Europe that time, and it was thrown immediately into the WC'94 preliminaries, improving a lot throughout the tournament but showing a disastrous performance overall. Nevertheless, Tal Banin impressed there as well, again with his left. In the game against Sweden at home, Israel was down 0:1 from the wonderful shot of Andreas Limpar after 36 minutes, when Itzhak Zohar sent the ball into the box 6 minutes later. The Swedish defender headed it away, and Banin stood 19 meters from the net to meet the ball with another left-foot volley. The ball wasn't strong, but curved enough to surprise the wonderful Thomas Ravelli in the net of Sweden. A great 1:1 in what had to become another Israeli loss, 1:3 at the end.

All the above-mentioned was enough for Tal to impress Europe, and Louis Fernandez, the coach of the French First Division newcomer, Cannes, took Banin into his squad for one season of experience. The very first game of Cannes was at home against the threatening Marseilles, then the European Champion before the disqualification and all the sanctions. A penalty of Alen Boksic gave Marseilles a lead after 25 minutes of play, but a magnificent pass of Banin from the mid-circle put the forward of Cannes at one-to-one against Fabien Barthez, an equalizer. Later on in the 2nd half, Banin was involved in another move to bring Cannes a surprising winner. A wonderful debute for Tal!

Cannes took a 6th place at the end of the season, and an UEFA Cup berth. Banin managed to score 2 beautiful goals through the season, and to make several great goal passes. Sadly, a lot of injuries followed him, and a lot of time he just had to sit on the bench. Even so, Fernandez, passing at the end of the season to coach Paris Saint-Germain and bringing it to glory later on, tried to persuade Banin to stay for another season in Cannes, with a later option of coming to PSG. Banin hesitated and finally decided to give up and to return to Hapoel Haifa. In my opinion, a great mistake.

Hapoel Haifa, with Rubi Shapira as its sponsor, gathered a lot of stars - Tal Banin altogether with Reuven Attar, Yaacov Asayag in its net, Alon Halfon and Hisham Zoabi, etc.; nevertheless, it was a season the team would like to forget, with a 13th place and a lot of problems. Still, the occasional sparkles of Banin and Attar nearly brought the team to Europe - it reached the Cup final and lost it to Maccabee Haifa, 0:2. And Banin regained his place in the National Team, lost because of his injuries; the EC'96 preliminaries was a far better cycle than the previous one, and though the Israeli team had an unexplained crisis in the middle of the cycle, it proved itself a tough rival, not to be taken lightly by anybody. Banin scored once, from a penalty spot, bringing Israel a home draw against Slovakia, 2:2. And nobody will forget his brilliant pass to leave Ronen Harazi against Joseph Wandzyk; Israel then beat Poland at home, 2:1.

The next season, however, was the best one in the new history of Hapoel Haifa. (Of course, before the 3rd place with Eli Gutman and Giovanni Rosso, and the consequent Championship). Shapira made a revolution in the team, signing Avraham Grant as its coach and bringing several fresh and talented players - the defenders Felix Halfon and Offer Talker, Alon Halfon and the Croatian International Demir Lajec, the Hungarian International keeper Zoltan Veg (who, making several crucial mistakes, still managed to show quite a good skill throughout the season), the great attacker named Amir Turgeman... But the two brightest stars stayed as before - Reuven Attar and Tal Banin. Attar presented a really superb form to score 21 goals, falling only behind Haim Revivo, and Banin scored 7 times, making several brilliant goal passes. Unfortunately for the Reds, it was enough just for the 4th place, but Hapoel Haifa was one of the most attractive teams in the League, if not the most attractive.

That season of 1995-96 brought an unusual number of truly wonderful goals - the genius of Haim Revivo and Reuven Attar, the 2 magnificent goals of Offer Talker, the acrobatic sparks of Sergei Kandaurov, Istvan Salloi, Najouan Grayib and Ronen Harazi, the penetrations of Shalom Tikwa and Offer Shitrit, etc... But the person to score "The Goal Of The Season" again was, no doubt, Tal Banin. In Week 20, in a home game of Hapoel Haifa against Bnei-Yehuda Tel-Aviv, Nimrod Rozales gave a short pass to Banin, 35 meters from the net, and the latter shot without stopping a tremendous left-footer, penetrating under the right crossbar of the acrobatically and helplessly flying Bonnie Ginzburg. Something Europe wouldn't be ashamed of seeing, and I tell this, having seen several thousand goals in my life.

The fabulous Israeli victory over Bulgaria, 2:1 at home in the start of the WC'98 preliminary cycle, started the season of 1996-97. Being down after 2 minutes of play, Israel managed to show its best skills and to defeat one of the best European teams. All the team was wonderful - David Amsalem, Ronnie Rosenthal, Haim Revivo, Avi Nimni, Alon Hazan, Ronen Harazi; but again, Tal Banin was the best, to bring the results. After 35 minutes of play, a magnificent pass of Banin left Ronen Harazi alone in front of Borislav Mihailov to equalize, while all the Bulgarian defence stood stunned, waiting for an offside whistle that never came. Tal, as usual, invested a lot of energy in his defensive work and started most of the Israeli attacks. After 63 minutes, it resulted in a winner - Banin sent Felix Halfon into the box with a short pass, Houbtchev knocked our defender down, and the referee awarded a penalty kick; Banin took it with his left and again left the keeper no chance, sending the ball into the right corner of Mihailov at half a height. 2:1.

At the end of this season of 1996-97, Tal Banin left for Serie A, to play for the Italian team Brescia. The weak team relegated at the end of the first season, was pretty close to return to the senior Italian League at the 2nd, and finally returned there at the end of the 3rd - and then it separated from Tal Banin, who proved his skill for numerous times both in the club and in the National team. Returning now to Maccabee Tel-Aviv, Tal, still not 30, hopes to bring both his new club and the National team, whose captain he still stays, to lots of glorious achievements in the future. Good luck!