Itzik Zohar

Itzik Zohar (; born October 31, 1970) is an Israeli former international footballer and television sports personality. Born in Bat Yam, Israel Due to the unsavory conditions of the neighborhood, Zohar's father encouraged the children to play football in order to stay off the streets. In an interview with Iton Tel Aviv, Zohar claims that he spends much time with his children and has watched Finding Nemo over 17 times. He is a religious Jew and a close friend of Ashdod's Rabbi Pinto. In June 2008, Zohar was attacked on a main street in Tel Aviv by an unknown person; he was attacked with a broken bottle, and had to be treated with 52 stitches on the right side of his face. In January 2011, Zohar was attacked again in Tel Aviv while partying at a nightclub in the same method; an unknown person broke a bottle on his head which resulted in injuries in his head and hand.

Football career A product of the Maccabi Jaffa youth system, both he and his brother, Avivi, became professional footballers. Itzik's professional debut was in a Liga Artzit match with childhood club Maccabi Jaffa against Hakoah Ramat Gan which ended in a 0:0 draw. After finishing the season in ninth place, Zohar was bought by Maccabi Tel Aviv where he won his first top flight championship in the 1991–92 season. The transfer price was US $90,000, which was a rather large amount in Israeli football at the time. He then returned to Maccabi Tel Aviv where he took the "double".

After another league title, this time with Beitar Jerusalem in 1996–97, Zohar was sold to English club Crystal Palace for £1,200,000 but quickly returned to Israel after failing to make an impression at the club. In a league match against Southampton, Zohar stepped up to take a penalty kick in place of regular penalty kick taker, Bruce Dyer. His weakly hit shot cost Palace the win and so his reputation with the supporters was forever tainted. His dismal performances for Palace caused him to be voted by the fans as one of the top ten worst signings. In April 2012 Talk Sport magazine rated Zohar as Crystal Palace's Worst Foreign player. After returning from England, he was signed by Maccabi Haifa, as a replacement for Ukrainian midfielder Serhiy Kandaurov, who was sold to Portugal's Benfica. Haifa manager, Daniel Brailovsky was disappointed with Zohar's performances during practices and decided to let him languish on the bench during the season. After a falling out with Brailovsky, Zohar joined Maccabi Tel Aviv for his third stint but suffered an injury that saw him off the pitch for about 10 months. In retrospect, he later credited this injury to be the hardest part of his footballing career. In his defense, he claimed that his comments were directed at Holon's Hamisi Amani-Dove (an African American). Aside from receiving a one match ban and ₪5,000 fine, Zohar was publicly lambasted for his words that shook up the football world in Israel that was in the middle of promoting racial equality in Israel. After being released from his contract in Netanya, club manager, Uri Malmilian, left the club in protest. Zohar rejoined Beitar, where he was a central part of the club and helped steer the club away from the relegation zone of the table. He continued there for another season after which he announced he was retiring from football.

Zohar began to look toward a life after football before F.C. Ashdod was able to coax Zohar out of retirement. In 2003, he opened up a bar-restaurant, called Saga, in the Tel Aviv marina. At the time, it looked like things were working out again on the pitch, though he later announced his retirement for a second time before coming out of retirement for a second time to join Hapoel Nazareth Illit. It was a short lived return though as Zohar only managed three games before announcing on February 14, 2005 that he was hanging up his boots for good.

Acting career After hanging up his boots, Zohar began to split his time between a number of different projects. Remaining a celebrity in Israel, he is the face of Gillette, Careline and many other brands in Israel. He is a regular guest on the football wrapup show on Israel 10 as well as other sports related programmes. As an actor, he had a role on a television programme called, "The Show", but it was canceled shortly after a couple of episodes. On the side, he also dabbles in the Tel Aviv real estate market.

Beach football On June 1, 2007 Zohar was in the starting line up of the first ever Israel national beach soccer team. In his first competitive match, Zohar scored a goal as Israel beat their English counterparts by a score of 6–5 in Netanya, Israel. He was originally going to be a part of the squad for the qualification round of the European beach football championship in Athens, Greece, but pulled out due to injury. Locally, Zohar represents the city of Rosh HaAyin in Israel's inaugural beach football league.

Statistics

Honours With Maccabi Tel Aviv: Israeli Premier League (2): 1991–92, 1995–96 State Cup (2): 1994, 1996 Toto Cup (2): 1992–93, 1998–99 With Beitar Jerusalem: Israeli Premier League (1): 1996–97 With Maccabi Haifa: State Cup (1): 1998